Players confident in security at Wimbledon
Recent terror attacks in Britain don’t prompt players to skip major
Professional tennis players at the French Open say they are not worried about competing at Wimbledon next month despite the recent attacks in Britain.
“I’m sure Wimbledon’s on top of that stuff,” Britain’s Jamie Murray, the brother of No. 1ranked Andy Murray, said Sunday after reaching the doubles quarterfinals at Roland Garros. “That seems to be the world that we have to live in these days, which is not much fun for anyone. But I guess you just have to trust in the authorities and the people that are in charge that they know what they’re doing.”
Britain suffered its third major attack in three months when men using a van and knives killed sev- en people in a busy area of London on Saturday night.
“It’s very hard to stop someone getting in a van and driving around trying to knock people over. How do you stop that? It’s very difficult. It’s very sad. It’s tragic,” Jamie Murray continued. “It’s just a shame that there’s people out there that want to do that stuff to other humans.”
A van veered off the road and barreled into pedestrians on London Bridge. Three men with large knives then got out of the vehicle and attacked people at bars and restaurants in nearby Borough Market until they were fatally shot by police.
There was a similar vehicleand knife-attack on Westminster Bridge in London in March that left five people dead. And on May 22, a suicide bomber killed 22 people and injured dozens at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester in northwest England.
“It’s terrible to hear these kind of things, all around,” said Spain’s Rafael Nadal, who has won two Wimbledon titles and is seeking a 10th at the French Open. “(It’s) very bad news, and with these kind of things, you cannot feel 100% safe. ... That’s very bad news for everybody.”
“It’s tough to accept these kind of things,” Nadal said, “but it’s happening very often today and (it) is difficult to change that for the moment.”
France is still under a state of emergency after a string of Islamic extremist attacks, including two in Paris.
The French Open continues until next weekend. Wimbledon starts July 3 at the All England Club in southwest London.
“It’s obviously very awful what’s happening, or what’s happened the last few weeks, and obviously what happened here in the past, as well,” said former No. 1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki, who is Danish. “You know, I don’t know what you can do to prevent it.”
Added Wozniacki: “I think they are, here and (in) the U.K., trying to do everything they can to keep the security at the highest level, and I think here they are doing a good job.
“I’m sure that when we go to the U.K. to play, they will do a great job, too.”