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Wimbledon plans to ban Russian and Belarus players from tournament
The Wimbledon tournament is expected to announce that it will ban Russian and Belarusian players from playing this year due to the War in Ukraine and Belarusian support for the Russian offensive.
According to the New York Times, citing an anonymous source highly placed in world tennis, Wimbledon could ban Russian and Belarusian players from the competition.
If the information is confirmed, the British Grand Slam tournament would become the first individual tournament to take such measures in the world of tennis. The announcement could be made shortly.
The International Tennis Federation has already excluded Russia and its partner Belarus from the team competitions, namely the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup.
Wimbledon’s decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players could affect top tennis players like Daniil Medvedev, Aryna Sabalenka (the Belarusian was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon last year), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or Victoria Azarenka.
Russia has four players in the Top 30 and five players in the Top 40. In early April, the Wimbledon tournament consulted with the British government on whether to ban Russian and Belarusian players from competing.
The All England Lawn Tennis Club said the problem was “complex and difficult”. The British government has established a regulation that Russian and Belarusian athletes must declare in writing that they condemn the war in Ukraine in order to compete as neutrals on British soil.