Tennis star Rafael Nadal says he believes it is wrong for Wimbledon to ban players for reasons not within their own control.
The 21-time Grand Slam champion has hit out at the decision by The All England Club (ALETC) exclude Russian and Belarusian players from participating in the tournament this year due to the war in Ukraine. Russia launched their military operations on February 24th and Belarus is suspected of supporting them. The British Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) has also implemented a ban which applies to ATP/WTA events taking place.
“I think it’s very unfair on my Russian tennis mates,” Nadal said in Spanish during his pre-tournament press conference in Madrid. “It’s not their fault what’s happening in this moment with the war.’
“I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry for them. I wish it was not this way, but at the end of the day we know that this is what we have.”
Until now tennis had shown a united front when it came to addressing the Ukrainian war with the seven governing bodies, including Wimbledon, issuing a joint-statement earlier this year. At the time it was agreed that players from those countries would be allowed to play but only as a neutral athlete and their federations have been banned from team events.
The British ban has divided opinion in the sport with the ATP branding it as ‘unfair’ and says it could pave the way for a ‘damaging precedent’ in the sport. Meanwhile, the WTA has hinted that they will be conducting a ‘strong response’ but it is unclear as to what they may do. It is understood that the two organizations will hold talks during the Madrid Open.
During their Spring press conference, the AELTC has stated that the decision was made in light of recommendations from the British government on the matter. Although former world No.1 Nadal has hit back at that argument.
“When the government imposes some restrictions, you just have to follow them. In that case, the government gave a recommendation, and Wimbledon just took their decision, the more drastic position that they could take without taking into account — the government didn’t force them to do it.” He stated.
Nadal is currently a member of the ATP Players Council who makes recommendations to the Board of Directors. Wimbledon falls out of the jurisdiction of the ATP and governs itself, which limits the influence the men’s governing body has on them. It is possible that they could decide to revoke the awarding of ranking points at the Grand Slam but that would be extremely unprecedented and no public talk of such an approach has been mentioned so far.
“We will have to see the measures that we take, and it’s very unfair thing for them (the banned players), for sure,” Nadal continued.
“But unfortunately, I would say that at this moment being a very complicated situation for those Russian players there is a lot of things happening. Russia and Ukraine, and at the end of the day, what happens in our game doesn’t have any importance when we can see so many people dying and suffering and seeing the bad situation they are having in Ukraine, very serious.”
Nadal will begin his clay campaign at the Madrid Open after missing recent weeks of the Tour due to a rib injury. He will be hoping to continue his stellar start to the season where he won 20 matches in a row before losing to Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals of the Miami Open.
