Players open to seeking Wimbledon compromise
The ATP Players’ Council is open to watering down its position on stripping Wimbledon of all ranking points ahead of crunch talks in Paris tomorrow.
Bruno Soares, Jamie Murray’s doubles partner and a member of the council, said yesterday that until play begins at the showpiece event, there is “always room for change” – be that a complete about-turn or toning down of the ruling.
Wimbledon chief executive Sally Bolton and chairman Ian Hewitt are due in Paris tomorrow to attend the French Open where they are likely to face talks over the row that has divided the sport.
But if the players are to weaken their stance and push for ranking points to be frozen rather than being stripped, Soares said the All England Club will have to show willingness to alter its position too.
“I think if Wimbledon is willing to work together, with the players and everyone, I think there’s room for that. The frustration from the players is not being part of the decisionmaking process,” he said.
Last week the Women’s Tennis Association and the Association of Tennis Professionals took the decision, with the backing of their player
councils, to strip Wimbledon of ranking points in response to the tournament’s ban of Russian and Belarusian athletes.
Although Soares feels the ban is unlikely to be reversed, he left the door open to Wimbledon’s organisers to salvage the situation.
“Right now everyone is talking to each other, and there’s a lot of argument, and this could be prevented by just rewinding to three months ago and [the AELTC] doing the exact same thing before an important decision,” Soares said. “I would sit at the table and say ‘how can we work together to make a bad situation into something positive?’ Honestly, until the tournament starts there is room to change that decision.”
Andy Murray yesterday weighed in on the row, and countered Naomi Osaka and other players’ suggestions that they may skip Wimbledon as it had effectively been downgraded to an “exhibition” event.
“I’d hazard a guess that most people watching on Centre Court Wimbledon in a few weeks’ time wouldn’t know or care about how many ranking points a player gets for winning a third round match,” Murray said in a Twitter post. “But I guarantee they will remember who wins.
“Wimbledon will never be an exhibition and will never feel like an exhibition. The end.”