Russian and Belarusian tennis players will be banned from matches at Wimbledon this year because of Russia’s war with Ukraine and support for Belarus, tournament officials said on Wednesday.
The ban imposed by the host All England Club of Wimbledon on individual athletes from both countries was primarily due to aggression at a tennis tournament.
This does not include some top Russian players, including number 2 Daniel Medvedev, current US Open champion and former world number one Victoria Azarenka. Belarusian Arina Sabalenka, a semifinalist at Wimbledon last year, is in 4th place.
“We recognize that this is a severe blow to the people, and it is unfortunate that they will be hurt by the actions of the leaders of the Russian regime,” said Ian Hewitt, president of the English club. It can be read in the statement.
A Kremlin spokesman called the ban “unacceptable.”
“Again, they’re just making athletes hostages of political superstitions, political intrigues,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. According to the Moscow Times.
The decision to exclude Russian players from the match in London was fueled by protests by the British royal family over the possibility of handing over the Wimbledon Cup to a Russian athlete. The information was disseminated by The Telegraph.
The British government has As mentioned earlier that Russian players have to condemn their government and President Vladimir Putin in order to compete.
Russian athletes have met with A wide range of bans After their country invaded Ukraine from international sports in late February. Belarus has suffered from the country’s support for the aggression and from its alliance with its leader Putin.
Russian officials and athletes faced numerous legal challenges after the bans, including the removal of the Russian men’s team from the World Cup qualifiers by the international football organization FIFA.
The start of Wimbledon is scheduled for the end of June. The spokesperson for the event did not immediately respond to a request for comment from HuffPost.
Source: Huffpost
