The ATP, WTA, and ITF all announced on Friday that the governing bodies will not award ranking points for the upcoming Wimbledon Championships, a decision made in response to the All England Lawn Tennis Club and Lawn Tennis Association’s move to ban Russian and Belarusian players from the grass-court major and warm-up tournaments, respectively.
“The ability for players of any nationality to enter tournaments based on merit, and without discrimination, is fundamental to our Tour,” the ATP announced in a statement, later adding that ranking points earned at last year’s Wimbledon would not be frozen. “The decision by Wimbledon to ban Russian and Belarusian players from competing in the UK this summer undermines this principle and the integrity of the ATP Ranking system. It is also inconsistent with our Rankings agreement.”
The WTA echoed a similar sentiment, writing, “Individual athletes participating in an individual sport should not be penalized or prevented from competing solely because of their nationalities or the decisions made by the governments of their countries.”
Wimbledon later responded to the announcements in a statement of their own, affirming their decision to bar Russians and Belarusians from competing while calling the tours' decision "disproportionate in the context of the exceptional and extreme circumstances of this situation and the position we found ourselves in, and damaging to all players who compete on Tour.
"We remain unwilling to accept success or participation at Wimbledon being used to benefit the propaganda machine of the Russian regime, which, through its closely controlled State media, has an acknowledged history of using sporting success to support a triumphant narrative to the Russian people."
Ranking points remain on offer at LTA warm-up tournaments due to the availability of comparable events outside the United Kingdom, but the WTA plans to put the trio of LTA-sanctioned events in Nottingham, Birmingham and Eastbourne on probation.
“The stance we are taking is about protecting the equal opportunities that WTA players should have to compete as individuals,” the WTA concluded. “If we do not take this stance, then we abandon our fundamental principle and allow the WTA to become an example to support discrimination based on nationality at other events and in other regions around the world. The WTA will continue to apply its rules to reject such discrimination.”
Russian and Belarusian players have been playing without their flag since their government’s armies invaded Ukraine at the end of February, only receiving bans from national team competitions like the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup.
Prior to the Ukraine invasion, Russian athletes competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics last summer under a neutral flag as a result of state-sponsored doping violations.
