Russian and Belarusian tennis players banned from Wimbledon

The British tennis championships, Wimbledon, announced on Wednesday that the Russian and Belarusian tennis players will be banned from participating in the tournament scheduled for June 27-July 10.

The organizers of Wimbledon , the third Grand Slam of the season, justified their decision on the Russian military operation in Ukraine, in a flagrant violation of the principle of not confusing sport with politics that has been espoused by the sports community for many years.

With this decision, the tournament will lose many stars of the game, such as the Russian Daniil Medvedev, the second seed in the world, in addition to his compatriots Andrei Rublev, the eighth seed, Karen Khachanov, the 26th seed, and Aslan Karatsev, the 30th seed.

In the women's competitions, Russian 15th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 26th seed Daria Kasatkina, Belarusian world number four Arina Sabalenka and 18th seed Victoria Azarenka will be absent.

Wimbledon became the first tennis tournament to ban a country's athletes from participating for political reasons.

The authorities supervising the game of tennis have recently banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in international team competitions under their country's flag, and they are currently participating in all tennis competitions on a neutral basis.

Source: rsport.ria.ru