Russian and Belarusian tennis players banned from taking part at this year’s Wimbledon Champioinships

Russian and Belarusian players will not be allowed to compete at the Wimbledon Championships in the summer this year, because of the invasion of Ukraine.

The move affects the current Men’s world number two Daniil Medvedev of Russia and the women’s world number four Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, which are the two highest ranked players to be affected.

The All England Tennis Club made the decision on Wednesday, stating it had a responsibility to “limit Russia’s global influence through the strongest means possible”.

The tournament will run for two weeks from 27^th June until 10^th July, with this decision possibly having an influence of future grand slam tournaments.

Sabalenka reached the semi-finals of last year’s tournament, while Medvedev had already made his intentions to play in the grass court season tournaments, and has been featuring in the current Hertogenbosch tournament in the Netherlands.

Other Russian and Belarus players to miss out on playing at the worlds prestigious tennis event are Russian world number 15 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who  called for the war to stop earlier this year.

18^th ranked player in the world Victoria Azarenka of Belarus will also miss out along with Russia’s Andrey Rublev who is currently in the world’s top ten and compatriot Karen Khachanov who is ranked 26.

Only players will be banned, however, coaches, umpires, and physiotherapists will all be allowed to take their place in the tournament.

The LTA has also made the decision to ban all Russian and Belarus players from taking part in the English grass court season, with none being allowed to play at events like Queens, Eastbourne, Nottingham and Edgbaston.

As it stands at the moment, all players from Russia and Belarus can still take part in the forthcoming French Open in May.

The All England Lawn Tennis Club said

“We recognise that this is hard on the individuals affected, and it is with great sadness that they will suffer from the actions of the leaders of the Russian regime”

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