Russian tennis players will be banned from attending Wimbledon in June, a decision that will prevent current world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev from playing in the third Grand Slam of the season.
The tennis tournament, held annually at the All England Club in London, will set itself apart from the rest of the tennis world by barring Russians from taking part, according to someone familiar with the decision and who was granted anonymity as the talks were private. Russian tennis players have been allowed to stay on the ATP and WTA tours since the start of the Ukraine invasion in February.
Last month, British Sport Minister Nigel Huddleston suggested Medvedev and his Russian tennis colleagues should not be allowed to compete at Wimbledon unless they had somehow assured the government that they were not a supporter of Putin.
It is unclear whether the ban will also apply to Belarusian athletes, who have also recently been banned from athletic competitions due to the government’s close ties with Russia. An email sent to the All England Club’s press office after hours was not immediately answered. Olivier van Lindonk, Medvedev’s agent at IMG, could not be immediately reached for comment.
Wimbledon will be just the latest international sporting venue to prevent Russians from competing while Vladimir Putin’s military continues his invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s southern neighbor. In late February, the IOC recommended banning Russian athletes from international competitions, a strong statement that led to Russian teams and individuals being banned from participating in the Paralympics and dozens of other major international sporting events. The Russian football team was removed from qualifying for the Men’s World Cup later that year. Russian and Belarusian runners were banned from the Boston Marathon earlier this week.
Russian tennis player Andrey Rublev writes ‘No War Please’ on camera after his victory in Dubai today #Ukraine #NoWarPleasepic.twitter.com/AilwlNw0Re
– dr Neil Pender BM MSc FRCP 🏳️🌈 (@DrNeilPender) February 25, 2022
In tennis, Russian and Belarusian athletes were allowed to continue to compete, but were prevented from doing so under their country’s name or flag. The ATP and WTA also suspended a combined event in Moscow scheduled for October. The French Open, the next Grand Slam on the calendar, reportedly have no plans to stop Russians or Belarusians from playing next month.
Alongside Medvedev, who spent some time as the world’s best man earlier this year, there are three other Russian men in the top 100 – Andrey Rublev (No.8), Karen Khachanov (No.26) and Aslan Karatsev (No.30) . There are eight in the women’s rankings, including No. 15 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and No. 26 Daria Kasatkina. There are a handful of other top-ranked Belarusians, including No. 4 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 18 Victoria Azarenka, a two-time Grand Slam winner.
The Wimbledon prize pool was worth around $45.5million (£35million) last year. The men’s and women’s singles champions each took home approximately $2.2 million.