The world’s first racket, Iga Sventek, believes that Russian tennis players should have been suspended a year ago.
“At the beginning, the subject of punishment was considered, but tennis did not go this way. Now it would be unfair to do this in relation to the Russian and Belarusian players, because this decision should have been made a year ago.
From the very beginning, I believe that tennis can better show everyone that tennis players are against military action,” explains Sventek. “BBC”.
Recall that Russian tennis players perform at international tournaments as neutral athletes. The only tournament the Russians missed was Wimbledon 2022. They were returned this year.
Last year, Wimbledon organizers refused to allow Russian and Belarusian tennis players to compete. In addition, players from these countries are banned from playing in lawn tournaments held under the auspices of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) in England.
Wimbledon starts on July 3 and runs until July 16. Last year, Serbian Novak Djokovic and Kazakhstan representative Elena Rybakina became champions.
Former Vice President Igor Levitin He said that Russian sport is in a turbulent state.