Tennis players banned from Wimbledon because of the country they were born in (Russia)
And Belarus
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Wimbledon is an area in southwest London which holds the All England Club tennis competition, known as The Championships, every year. It is one of the four Grand Slam tournaments along with the French, US and Australian Opens. It is iconic due to it being the only major to be played on grass and is renowned for rain interrupting play. It is a great day out and is tradition to eat strawberries with cream and drink Pimm’s.
Up until now, in other competitions, Russian and Belarusian players have been allowed to play so long as their anthem is not played and under a neutral flag.
Today, however, Wimbledon issued a statement regarding Russian and Belarusian individuals at the 2022 championships.
“On behalf of the All England Club and the Committee of Management of The Championships, we wish to express our ongoing support for all those impacted by the conflict in Ukraine during these shocking and distressing times.
We share in the universal condemnation of Russia’s illegal actions and have carefully considered the situation in the context of our duties to the players, to our community and to the broader UK public as a British sporting institution. We have also taken into account guidance set out by the UK Government specifically in relation to sporting bodies and events.
Given the profile of The Championships in the United Kingdom and around the world, it is our responsibility to play our part in the widespread efforts of Government, industry, sporting and creative institutions to limit Russia’s global influence through the strongest means possible.
In the circumstances of such unjustified and unprecedented military aggression, it would be unacceptable for the Russian regime to derive any benefits from the involvement of Russian or Belarusian players with The Championships.
It is therefore our intention, with deep regret, to decline entries from Russian and Belarusian players to The Championships 2022.
Ian Hewitt, Chairman of the All England Club, commented: “We recognise that this is hard on the individuals affected, and it is with sadness that they will suffer for the actions of the leaders of the Russian regime.
"We have very carefully considered the alternative measures that might be taken within the UK Government guidance but, given the high profile environment of The Championships, the importance of not allowing sport to be used to promote the Russian regime and our broader concerns for public and player (including family) safety, we do not believe it is viable to proceed on any other basis at The Championships.”
If circumstances change materially between now and June, we will consider and respond accordingly.
We also welcome the LTA’s decision in declining entries from Russian and Belarusian players to UK events to ensure that British tennis is delivering a consistent approach across the summer.”
This means Daniil Medvedev (pictured above) along with Andre Rublev, Karen Khachanov, Daria Kasatkina, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Aslan Karatsev, Aryna Sabalenka and others have been banned from competing this year for the crime of being born in a country.
Medvedev is number two in the world, Rublev is number eight and Sabalenka is women’s number four. A great loss for the competition.
The reasons for banning theses players, given in the statement above are:
The club has duties to the players, to their community and to the broader UK public as a British sporting institution;
They have taken into account guidance set out by the UK Government;
They want to limit Russia’s global influence;
They don’t want the Russian regime to derive any benefits from the involvement of Russian or Belarusian players;
They don’t want to allow sport to be used to promote the Russian regime;
There are broader concerns for public and player (including family) safety.
None of these reasons seem to justify banning somebody from going to work due to the country they were born in. I would admit that with the current frenzy of Russophobia going round, player safety might be an issue but that is for the club to improve security and the player to decide if they feel safe or not.
To my knowledge, none of the players have any links to the Russian regime or have voiced any political opinions. The worst thing I can find that Medvedev has said is:
“I always said everybody has different opinions on different things in the world. I always said I'm for peace.
It's very tough in life to talk what is fair and not fair. So I of course do have my own opinions on different topics, but I prefer to speak about them with my family, with my wife, where we can sometimes disagree but we can discuss.”
In fact most of them have spoken out against the war.
And whilst it is easy to think that they are rich tennis players and so will be fine, why should wealth make it ok to be targeted for reasons out of their control. Furthermore, we don’t know their individual situations. Maybe they have big debts, maybe they have big families they care for, maybe they are paying for their friend’s hospital treatment. We just don’t know, nor should we know, it is their private business and so long as they are acting legally, they should be able to earn a crust (or a few million loaves in their case!). Joking aside, the not so good players won’t earn a lot of money so every competition will count.
It may not be a one off incident either. Other tournaments may follow suit and every missed game will have a knock on effect on their future performance and therefore their earning capacity.
In no way is letting Russian and Belarusian players compete in a tennis tournament supporting the Russian regime. People aren’t going to suddenly change their minds and think invading Ukraine is a good idea because a Russian player reached the semi-finals. Putin isn’t going to suddenly pull his troops out because he can’t watch his favourite player. This isn’t even like a football world cup where teams represent their countries. These are individuals, who happen to be born in the country they were, competing for themselves.
Another reason for the ban is that the club is taking account of government guidance. However, further down in the statement they say there are alternative measures within the guidance but because of the high profile environment have chosen not to take them.
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) responded by saying:
“We believe that today's unilateral decision by Wimbledon and the LTA to exclude players from Russia and Belarus from this year's British grass-court swing is unfair and has the potential to set a damaging precedent for the game.
Discrimination based on nationality also constitutes a violation of our agreement with Wimbledon that states that player entry is based solely on ATP Rankings.”
The Women’s Tennis Association have also issued a statement:
“We are, however, very disappointed in today's announcement by the AELTC and the LTA to ban individual athletes who are from Russia and Belarus from competing in the upcoming UK grass court events. A fundamental principal of the WTA is that individual athletes may participate in professional tennis events based on merit and without any form of discrimination.
That principle is expressly set forth in our rules and has been agreed to by both AELTC and LTA. Prohibitions against discrimination are also clearly expressed in their own rules and the Grand Slam rules.
As the WTA has consistently stated, individual athletes should not be penalized or prevented from competing due to where they are from, or the decisions made by the governments of their countries.
Discrimination, and the decision to focus such discrimination against athletes competing on their own as individuals, is neither fair nor justified. The WTA will continue to apply its rules to reject discrimination and ensure that all athletes are able to compete at our Tour events should they qualify to do so, a position that until today's announcement has been shared across professional tennis. The WTA will be evaluating its next steps and what actions may be taken regarding these decisions.”
Fortunately, the associations seem to be sticking with their players for now (I’m guessing until the public mood changes), unlike with the Djokovic debacle.
Other players have also come out in support of the banned Russians. Kecmanovic, a Serbian player said “It’s wrong what’s happening but I don’t think Medvedev, Rublev and the rest of the players are to blame. I don’t think it’s fair”
Politics should stay out of sport, especially when the players have stayed out of politics. The world continues to get more insane. The situation with Djokovic in the Australian Open was terrible and he received little support. How many people will support these players, especially if the war continues into the summer? This will become another "being seen to do the right thing” issue as was the insanity over Djokovic not being vaccinated.
Just because something bad is happening in the world, doing something just for the sake of it, often doesn’t help. Making arbitrary decisions about who can and can’t work just sets dangerous precedents. First it’s a rich tennis player who isn’t vaccinated, next it’s a rich tennis player who was born in the wrong country, next it’s someone who types on substack about issues you don’t agree with (uh oh) until eventually it’s you.
If Wimbledon wants to make a difference then I have a suggestion for them. Instead of virtue-signalling and banning players who have nothing to do with the Russian regime, donate all of your profits to helping Ukrainian refugees and families. Oh how quickly the virtue-signalling will stop.
Haha, what a bunch of clowns.
Who knows, maybe this is just the start, maybe they'll keep banning countries of orgin until an Englishman can win the tournament.
So disgraceful & stupid, banning sports figures, art, music, literature just for being Russian.