Norrie fears top players will skip Wimbledon
CAMERON NORRIE believes this year’s Wimbledon has been reduced to nothing more than an exhibition after the tournament was stripped of its ranking points.
The British No.1 also fears some top stars may even opt not to compete at the season’s third Grand Slam.
The ATP and WTA announced on Friday night that there would be no points on offer at SW19 after Wimbledon banned Russian and Belarusian players following the invasion of Ukraine.
World No.11 Norrie feels the country’s flagship tournament has been diminished as the top players would “not really be playing for anything”.
“Obviously it’s an extremely difficult situation with everything going on with the war, but for me it’s tough,” said Norrie, fresh from winning a first clay-court title in Lyon at the weekend.
“You know, having a home slam and not gaining any ranking points from that, and the tradition of it, you’re not really playing for anything. You’re playing this almost like an exhibition, so for me it was tough to see that.
“Obviously it’s a really tricky situation but I would have liked to see it still have points, to still have something on the line.
“This changes the ranking systems a lot, they’ve taken away almost 6,000 points from the whole system out of nowhere, so it’s going to interfere with the rankings, and then a lot of players that did well at Wimbledon last year are going to be dropping.
“I’d like to have points. Obviously having a home slam, and not many tournaments on the grass already, and then suddenly there’s no points there.
“I understand the situation is tricky. And there’s complications everywhere. But for me, that’s how I feel.
“Wimbledon is still such a special event. But I think you’ll see a lot of top players not playing, you know, just resting and getting ready for the hardcourt events, especially those that don’t worry too much about the money.
“So I could see a lot of players, well maybe a few top players, not playing because of that. It’ll be interesting to see.”
However, former US Open champion Sloane Stephens has backed the decision to strip the tournament of its ranking points.
Stephens, a member of the Tour’s player council, said: “I think the [WTA’s] decision that was taken was the correct one.
“I think that there is a lot of things that happened behind the scenes and I think there has been a lot of mishandling of how everything was handled.
“We will just go from there. Obviously I support our CEO, I support my council, I support the players.
“The decision that’s been taken obviously wasn’t taken lightly. I think when you are backed into a corner and that’s all you can do, I think that’s why the decision was made, and I support it.
“I think when you look at the principles and what our Tour stands for, discrimination will never be tolerated.”
American Stephens came from a set down in her opening match at the French Open to battle past German qualifier Jule Niemeier 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.
There was an early shock on day one at Roland Garros as sixth seed Ons Jabeur was beaten in the first round.
The Tunisian, a quarterfinalist at Wimbledon last year, was tipped as one of the main challengers to world No.1 Iga Swiatek. But Jabeur was beaten 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5, by Swiatek’s fellow Pole Magda Linette.
Former Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza, seeded 10, also crashed out, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, against Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi.
Emma Raducanu leads the British contingent as the US Open champion makes her main draw Roland Garros debut against fellow teenager Linda Noskova.
Dan Evans, Harriet Dart and Heather Watson are also in action, while Norrie begins his campaign against Manuel Guinard of France.