While Wimbledon is one of the most prestigious tournaments in the tennis calendar, recently it has been in the news for things other than the great level of tennis played at the tournament. A few days ago, the organizers of Wimbledon announced that they will not allow Russian or Belarusian players to participate in the tournament. Even though the players had been playing under a neutral flag, this decision comes as a step-up from that.

The entire tennis community has expressed mixed reactions to this sudden announcement by Wimbledon. Serena Williams’s coach, the famous Patrick Mouratoglou also shared his honest opinions about Wimbledon’s decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players.

BREAKING: Daniil Medvedev Andrey Rublev and Other Russian Tennis Players Banned From Playing at the Wimbledon Championships 2022

Patrick Mouratoglou thinks this does not send a good message

Given the volatile situation in Eastern Europe, the entire world has been on its edge, about how things are unfolding. But what the political leaders of the country decide has hardly anything to do with the players of the countries in question. Moreover, most of the Russian and Belarusian players have already explicitly expressed that they do not support the situation that is currently unfolding. Mouratoglou talked about this very thing and elaborated on how it might be risky for these players to dissent further because they too have families back in Russia or Belarus. He said that he agreed wholeheartedly with Novak Djokovic who said that politics should not interfere with sports.

“It’s not a good message. Those players are not representing Russia. They’re representing themselves. They happen to have a Russian passport, and that’s it, or a Belarusian passport, and that’s it… Of course there’s a war. Everybody’s against the war, including those players from Russia and Belarus. They expressed it,” he said.

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Mouratoglou says there are more meaningful ways to protest

He appreciated Andrey Rublev’s suggestion to donate all the prize money he wins at the Wimbledon for Ukrainian aid.

“And I think it’s completely against the ethics of sports.”, Patrick said in response to Wimbledon’s decision. He further added, “Rublev has proposed to give his prize money o the victims of Ukraine as that is much more powerful. Even imagine that is Russian or a Belarussia player wins Wimbledon, or a Belarussian player and donates all his money to the victims of Ukraine. I think the message is a million times stronger than banning them from playing.”

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Incidentally, it was Andrey Rublev from Russia who first spoke up about not supporting the war. He wrote “No war please” on the camera glass after winning the semifinals at the Dubai Tennis Championships.