The All England Club will provide two rooms for Ukrainian tennis players and their teams during the grass-court season and donate £1 (approximately US$1.25) to the Ukrainian relief effort for every ticket sold at Wimbledon. donate. Pound ($620,000) — after deciding to allow players from Russia and Belarus to return to the tournament despite the ongoing war.
The club’s president, Ian Hewitt, said at Tuesday’s annual spring press conference that the Russians and Belarusians, who were banned a year ago for the Ukrainian invasion that began in February 2022, will be able to compete at Wimbledon. said, “Probably the most difficult decision to make…my chairman.”
Hewitt and club chief executive Sally Bolton said Wimbledon will not be broadcast in Russia or Belarus and their media will not be allowed at this year’s tournament. They also said that flags and signs supporting any of these countries and wars were banned from the ground and that players were beginning to sign declarations not to show support for wars in Russia, Belarus or Ukraine. rice field. join.
On other topics, Hewitt and Bolton said:
- In-match coaching from the stands will be allowed on a trial basis for the first time at Wimbledon.
- Roger Federer, who won eight of his 20 Grand Slam titles with the All England Club and retired last year, will be celebrated in some way at this year’s tournament.
- Billie Jean King and other members of The Original 9 will be honored to mark the 50th anniversary of the WTA Women’s Tour.
- Men’s doubles will be reduced from best-of-five-set matches to best-of-three-set matches.
On March 31, the All England Club issued a statement saying it would allow Russian and Belarusian players to participate in this year’s Wimbledon “as ‘neutral’ players, subject to compliance with appropriate conditions”. Announced. The club said it would ban these players from expressing support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and from receiving funds from Russia or Belarus or companies “operated or controlled” by those two countries.
Among the players currently eligible to return to Wimbledon are world number two Alina Sabalenka of Belarus, who won her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January, and Daniil Medvedev of Russia. 2021 US Open title.
Others include two-time major champion and former Belarusian number one Victoria Azarenka and two-time major semi-finalist and former Russian top 10 member Karen Khachanov.
Since Russia launched its first offensive over a year ago with the backing of Belarus, Russian players have competed in various team sports competitions, including the men’s World Cup in soccer and the Billie Jean King and Davis Cups in tennis. has been locked out of Tennis tournaments outside the UK allow individual players from Russia and Belarus to compete as “neutral” athletes. Their nationalities are not mentioned in the official pairings of the match, the results or the graphics of the telecast of the match.
This year’s Wimbledon finals start on July 3rd. The women’s singles final will be held on July 15th and the men’s singles on July 16th.
In April 2022, the All England Club announced that it would ban Russians and Belarusians from Wimbledon. This drew immediate criticism from the WTA and ATP, as well as high-profile players such as Novak Djokovic, leading to the unprecedented move by the two tours to withhold all ranking points from Wimbledon in May.
