Will no points hurt Wimbledon?
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s twotime Wimbledon champion Andy Murray said on Wednesday the major would never feel like an ‘exhibition event’ and most people only care who wins after the Grand Slam had its ranking points stripped by the ATP and WTA Tours.
Organizers the All England Lawn Tennis Club took the decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players at this year’s grass-court championships due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The decision was described as “discriminatory” by the ATP and WTA and they moved to remove ranking points for the event.
On Monday four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka said she was considering missing Wimbledon because of the lack of ranking points which she said reduced her motivation to enter and made it feel ‘more like an exhibition’ Read full story
Others have voiced their concerns, but Murray said the prestige of Wimbledon would not be affected.
“I follow golf very closely and have no idea how many ranking points the winner of the @TheMasters gets. Me and my friends love football and none of us know or care how many ranking points a team gets for winning the @FIFAWorldCup,” the three-time Grand Slam winner said on Twitter.
“But I could tell you exactly who won the World Cup and the Masters. 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.
“But I guarantee they will remember who wins. @Wimbledon will never be an exhibition and will never feel like an exhibition. The end.”
The banning of Russian and Belarusian players from this year’s championships was the only viable option under the guidance provided by the British government, the AELTC said last month when announcing its decision.
It means players such as US Open champion Daniil Medvedev and former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka will not take part in the major which begins next month.
World no. 14 Denis Shapovalov said most of the players were not consulted before the decision and wished the ATP had not taken all points away from the tournament.
“It’s difficult. I think they could have gone with it a different way, maybe keep 50% like they have in the past or some kind of fairness,” he said. “It’s difficult for the players when you don’t have a chance to defend and especially on a surface like grass where [the season] is already so short and the players that play well on that surface they don’t have that many opportunities to make points, so you take a huge chunk of it out, it’s super difficult for players.”
The stripping of ranking points also denies players the chance to defend the points they earned at last year’s Wimbledon, likely meaning that Novak Djokovic will lose his ATP No. 1 ranking.