The president of the Russian Tennis Federation, Shamil Tarpischev, distanced himself from the comments made by Andrey Rublev. He said that he was not sure that Rublev himself knew what humanitarian aid was.
On Wednesday, Wimbledon banned players from Russia and Belarus from this year’s tournament. Rublev did not like the Wimbledon decision, suggesting that if they really wanted to do the right thing, they should have redistributed the prize money to the Ukraine relief fund.
“I don’t understand what he’s babbling about humanitarian aid. I doubt he knows it himself. It was the sportsman who said it. Ask him. Why make us two enemies? I don’t understand what he offered and to whom,” Tarpischev told Campionat.
Rublev’s comments
On Thursday, Rublev played his first match at the Serbian Open in Belgrade. After beating Jiri Lehecka in straight sets, Rublev accused Wimbledon of “total discrimination against Russian players”.
“The reasons they (Wimbledon) gave us were nonsense, illogical,” Rublev said. “What is happening now is complete discrimination against us.
Banning Russian or Belarusian players… won’t change anything. Giving all the prize money to humanitarian aid, to the families that are suffering, to the children that are suffering, I think that would do something, at least a little bit.
Tennis will, in this case, be the first and only sport to donate this amount of money and it will be Wimbledon, so they will get all the glory.” Shortly after Wimbledon announced its decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players, the LTA did the same thing.
The LTA, the governing body for tennis in Britain, has banned Russian and Belarusian players from taking part in all UK events scheduled for this season on grass courts. The banning of Russian players at Wimbledon had been the subject of speculation for weeks.
The New York Times reported earlier this week that a tennis authority confirmed to them that Wimbledon decided to ban Russian and Belarusian players.
The report published by The New York Times proved to be accurate as Wimbledon officially confirmed the ban on Wednesday.
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