WTA considers sanctions against Wimbledon over Belarus, Russia ban
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has suggested it will impose sanctions against Wimbledon and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) after the decision to bar Russian and Belarusian players.
The All England Club announced on Wednesday that it had banned players from both nations from competing at the third Grand Slam event of the season, due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, insidethegames.biz reported.
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and WTA have opposed the move, with both organisations having allowed Russian and Belarusian players to compete neutrally at events.
WTA chief executive Steve Simon has reportedly written to players confirming the organisation will define sanctions against Wimbledon and the LTA.
“No athlete has ever been barred from playing a tournament based on the actions of their government,” Simon wrote, according to the French newspaper L’équipe.
“These decisions are a violation of Grand Slam and WTA rules.
The Belarusian Tennis Federation (BTF) has claimed the decision to bar players is “illegal” and will consider legal action.
“All this only confirms our confidence that world sport and international sports organisations have now been turned into an instrument of political pressure and manipulation and, unfortunately, they no longer have anything to do with the development of sports and its popularisation,” the BTF said in a statement.
“We are aware of the ‘bias’ of the judicial system in the UK and we understand that the policy of double standards will again be taken against us, but we cannot and do not have the right to remain inactive.
“The BTF is taking all possible steps to level the current situation and assures that it will continue to defend the rights of Belarusian tennis players to participate in international tournaments.”
The Russian Tennis Federation has reportedly said it is “monitoring” the situation, but has not lodged an appeal to date.
The All England Club’s decision will rule out Russia’s Daniil Medvedev
and compatriot Andrey Rublev, the world numbers two and eight, respectively.
Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka is the highest player in the women’s rankings to be impacted.
The world number four reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon last year.
Rublev has labelled the decision to ban players as “discrimination”.
“The reasons they gave us had no sense, they were not logical,” Rublev told AFP.
“What is happening now is complete discrimination against us.”
Serbia’s men’s world number one Novak Djokovic has also labelled the decision as “crazy”.
Several Russian athletes have faced sanctions over their perceived support for the war in Ukraine.
The International Swimming Federation has banned swimmer Evgeny Rylov, who won gold in the 100m and 200m backstroke events at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, for nine months after he attended a war rally led by Russian President Vladimir Putin just two weeks after the outbreak of war in Ukraine.