Less than a day after the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) — the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits — stripped Wimbledon of ranking points due to its ban on Russian and Belarusian players, the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) followed suit, saying it will also "not award WTA ranking points for this year's Wimbledon Championships".
The WTA said in a statement on Saturday that the, "recent decisions made by the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) to ban athletes from competing in the upcoming UK grass-court events violate that fundamental principle, which is clearly embodied in the WTA rules, the Grand Slam rules and the agreement the WTA has with the Grand Slams."
Ian Hewitt, chairman AELTC had announced in April that Russian and Belarusian players will not be allowed to play in the UK this summer following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The decision meant the likes of Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Aryna Sabalenka, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Victoria Azarenka will miss out on the Grand Slam this year.
WTA chief executive, Steve Simon, said in the statement on Saturday that, "The atrocities happening to millions of innocent people in Ukraine because of Russia's unprovoked invasion are horrific and appalling. The WTA strongly condemns Russia's ongoing attack.
"Nearly 50 years ago, the WTA was founded on the fundamental principle that all players have an equal opportunity to compete based on merit and without discrimination. The WTA believes that individual athletes participating in an individual sport should not be penalised or prevented from competing solely because of their nationalities or the decisions made by the governments of their countries.
"As a result of the AELTC's position that it will not honour its obligation to use the WTA Rankings for entry into Wimbledon and proceed with a partial field not based on merit, the WTA has made the difficult decision to not award WTA ranking points for this year's Wimbledon Championships." IANS
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