But ATP management, including its player council, which includes stars such as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, ultimately decided it was important to take a firm stand against banning individual players to dissuade tournaments from banning players – now or in future – based on political concerns.
Updated
May 20, 2022, 11:56 am ET
“How do you draw the line between when you ban players and when you don’t?” Evgeny Kafelnikov, a Russian and former single player, said in a telephone interview from Moscow.
Unlike Wimbledon, the leading events in the UK are not deprived of ranking points, although they are officially part of the tour. Wimbledon, as a Grand Slam event, operates independently, but has arrangements for multi-level tours, including ranking points. But the ATP and WTA chose not to take points from the British preliminary events because other tournaments located on the European continent were still open to Russian and Belarusian players during these three weeks of the grass season. The WTA has announced that it is putting the events of the British tour in Nottingham, Birmingham and Eastbourne on probation because of the ban.
There were also concerns that without being offered ranking points, players would choose to withdraw from British grass tournaments. Wimbledon, with its huge prize money and prestige, is unlikely to experience such draws even without points, but there may still be some depletion.
The war between Russia and Ukraine: Key developments
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Russia’s punishment of Finland. Russia will cut natural gas supplies to Finland on May 21, according to Finland’s state energy supplier. Russia has said it is suspending supplies because Finland has not complied with its request to make payments in rubles. Finland has also applied to join NATO, which has angered Russia.
Wimbledon was under pressure from the British government to act. The tournament chose a ban after rejecting a government proposal by Russian and Belarusian players to provide “written declarations” that they do not represent their countries; that they have not received state funding or sponsorship from companies with strong ties to the Russian state; and that they did not have and will not express support for the invasion of Ukraine or the leadership of their countries. Above all, there were concerns that signing such a declaration could put players or their families at risk, as well as fears that the option would not be available to all Russian and Belarusian athletes. Adolescents, for example, are routinely funded by the Russian and Belarusian tennis federations and are therefore unlikely to be eligible to sign.
But when bans on individual athletes were announced, Wimbledon and the British Grass Games remained extraordinary. No other event on the tour has followed suit. Russian and Belarusian players, including men № 2, Daniil Medvedev of Russia, and women № 7, Arina Sabalenka of Belarus, must take part in the French Open, the next Grand Slam tournament on schedule when it starts on Sunday.
After the start of the war in Ukraine in February, professional tennis moved quickly to ban Russia and Belarus from team events such as the Davis Cup and the Billy Jean King Cup, both of which were won by Russia in 2021. The Tours and the International Tennis Federation also canceled tournaments scheduled to be played in Russia and Belarus later this year, including the Kremlin Cup in Moscow. The ITF has also suspended the tennis federations of its member countries.
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