Belarusian tennis star Aryna Sabalenka is asking Wimbledon what did their player ban change as it obviously didn’t force the Russian government to end the war.
Sabalenka, who made the Wimbledon semifinal in 2021, wasn’t allowed to participate in last year’s Wimbledon after the tournament imposed player bans on Russian and Belarusian players.
In an interview with The Age, Sabalenka underlined that she is “not supporting the war.”
“I’m just really disappointed sport is somehow in politics. We’re just athletes playing their sport. That’s it. We’re not about politics. If all of us could do something [about the war], we would do it, but we have zero control. They banned us from Wimbledon, and what did it change? Nothing – they’re [the Russian government] still doing this, and this is the sad [part] of this situation. This is really terrible because no one supports war – no one. The problem is that we have to speak loud about that, but why should we scream about that in every corner? It’s not going to help at all. We have zero control over this situation,” Sabalenka told The Age.
Will Sabalenka return to Wimbledon this year?
The ATP and WTA responded very strongly to Wimbledon’s actions as firstly they removed ranking points from last year’s Wimbledon.
In the summer, the WTA fined the LTA $750,000 and also handed the AELTC a $250,000 fine.
Then, the ATP slapped the LTA with a $1 million fine.
Wimbledon has paid a certain price for banning Russian and Belarusian players as the ATP and WTA have sent a strong message that they won’t tolerate further player bans of Russian and Belarusian players.
With six months left until Wimbledon, it is probably too early to talk about what will happen at this year’s tournament.
But Wimbledon may be starting to feel pressure to let Sabalenka and other Russian and Belarusian players compete at The Championships this year.
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