The recent decision of the organizers of the Wimbledon tournament to reject the participation of Russian and Belarusian tennis players in the third slam of the year has caused much controversy in the world of tennis.
First of all, the Russian and Belarusian athletes said they were surprised and disappointed by the decisive position of the organizers of the British tournament, especially Andrey Rublev, who defined it as real discrimination.
Subsequently, world number one Novak Djokovic and the ATP itself rejected the Wimbedon organizers’ decision. The latest to express his disapproval at the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes from the Grass Slam is Patrick Mouratoglou, who gave a brief interview to Tennis Majors.
Mouratoglou: “A very surprising decision”
The French coach said he was surprised by the decision made by the organizers of the British tournament: “Banning Russian and Belarusian players from playing at Wimbledon is a very surprising decision for me.
Politics must be left to politicians. Of course, there is a war and I am sure that everyone is against the war, including Russian and Belarusian players. I understand the position of the Ukrainian players because there is a war in their country, they have friends, relatives, who have been killed or who are afraid that they will be killed tomorrow.
I understand that they want strict measures against Russian and Belarusian players.” Mouratoglou then added that there are many tennis players who have already declared themselves against the war and that it must be very difficult for them, given that their families are still in Russia.
Mouratoglou explained: “Now if you are in their place, instead of Russians and Belarusians, they have their families living in Russia and by saying something like that, like condemning the government, they are potentially endangering their own family.
So I think Russian and Belarusian players have already said a lot against the war. They don’t literally say they are against war, but they prove it. So I think it’s the best thing they can do without taking risks, too much risk for their own family.”
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