Wimbledon’s Russia, Belarus ban on collision course with ATP, WTA

Wimbledon stripped of ranking points by sport’s main tours in a move that threatens to reduce Grand Slam to exhibition status. The world’s most prestigious tennis tournament is on a collision course with the sport’s global governing bodies after Wimbledon had its ranking points stripped by the ATP and WTA tours over excluding players from Russia and Belarus. According to the International Tennis Federation, the women’s and men’s professional tennis tours will not award ranking points for Wimbledon this year because of the All England Club’s ban on players from Russia and Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine, an unprecedented move that stands as a significant rebuke of the sport’s oldest Grand Slam tournament. “We believe these decisions to be disproportionate in the context of the exceptional and extreme circumstances of this situation and the position we found ourselves in, and damaging to all players who compete on Tour.” Ranking integrity WTA chief Steve Simon said the tour believes athletes participating in an individual sport “should not be penalised or prevented from competing solely because of their nationalities or the decisions made by the governments of their countries.” “The recent decisions made by the All England Lawn Tennis Club and the Lawn Tennis Association to ban athletes from competing in the upcoming UK grass court events violate that fundamental principle,” Simon said. “As a result of the AELTC’s position that it will not honour its obligation to use the WTA Rankings for entry into Wimbledon and proceed with a partial field not based on merit, the WTA has made the difficult decision to not award WTA ranking points for this year’s Wimbledon Championships.” Ban slammed Wimbledon’s ban on Russian and Belarusian competitors has been slammed by top players such as 21-times Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal who labelled it unfair, while world number one Novak Djokovic said he did not support the decision.