Spanish tennis superstar Rafael Nadal believes the UK government recommended banning Russian and Belarusian players and Wimbledon organizers followed his recommendation.
On Sunday, Nadal spoke for the first time about the Wimbledon decision. “I think it is very unfair to my fellow Russian tennis players, my colleagues. It is not their fault what is happening now with the war.
In that sense, well, you know, speaking of colleagues, I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry for them. I wish it wasn’t like that, but at the end of the day, we know we can’t help it,” Nadal said, as revealed by Reem Abulleil.
“From there we will see what happens. We will see what happens in the coming weeks, if the players make a decision on this. There is one thing that is negative and that is clear.
When the government imposes restrictions, you just have to follow them. In this case, the government didn’t impose, they just gave a recommendation, and Wimbledon just made their decision, the most drastic position they could take independently of the rest: the government didn’t force them to do it.”
Nadal is waiting to see the response from the ATP and WTA.
The ATP and WTA said they were not happy with Wimbledon’s decision.
It has been reported that the ATP and WTA may decide not to award points to this year’s Wimbledon participants. Nadal pointed out that the Grand Slams are the most important events and the 2000 points that the winner receives are extremely valuable.
“So, we will have to see what measures will be taken, and it is very unfair for them, for sure. But unfortunately, I would say that at the moment, you know, the situation is very complicated for these Russian players.” many things are happening.
The war between Russia and Ukraine is definitely more important than what is happening in our sport when you see so many people dying and suffering and when you see the bad situation they have in Ukraine, it is very serious”, concluded Nadal.
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