On Friday, the organizers of the Wimbledon tennis tournament announced that, unlike last year's competition, this season they will accept applications from players from Russia and Belarus. But, as in the recommendations of the International Olympic Committee issued a few days ago, the release of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club contains criteria for participating in a neutral status, which at least require clarification, and at the maximum, will leave the Russians and Belarusians in the same out», but in a more sophisticated way.
As you know, last year Wimbledon became the only Grand Slam tournament that refused to accept Russian and Belarusian tennis players. The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) hit back — turning the historically most prestigious tournament in the world into a kind of demonstration performance, depriving the organizers of the right to award rating points to participants for discrimination based on nationality.
For the second year in a row, the All England Club did not wish to enter into confrontation with organizations that, without any recommendations from the IOC, announced a year ago that they would not remove Russian and Belarusian tennis players. «The position we took last year has resulted in consequences that, if continued, will harm the interests of players, fans, the tournament and British tennis,» this quote explains the reasons why Wimbledon decided to take a different path this season.< br>
However, this path may turn out to be full of pitfalls, judging by the wording in the release. «Russian and Belarusian tennis players must compete in a neutral status, satisfying certain conditions,» it says. «It is forbidden to express support for Russia's actions in Ukraine» — this is the most understandable. None of our tennis players on the ATP and WTA tours has ever expressed it.
But what does «the participation of players receiving funding from the Russian and Belarusian states, including sponsorship from companies managed or controlled by states» mean? On the one hand, tennis players applying for participation in Wimbledon are in such a financial status that they themselves can sponsor anyone. For example, the strongest player in Russia, Daniil Medvedev, officially earned more than two million dollars in 2023 alone. Roman Safiullin, who is on the 104th line of the world ranking, who can also get into the main draw of Wimbledon, of course, received less for three months of this year, but this is also quite a solid 147 thousand dollars.
However, like in all other sports, in tennis there is an official composition of the Russian national team, which includes Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Daria Kasatkina, and the rest of our racket masters. And everyone who is in the national team receives a salary from the Ministry of Sports. It is clear that it is, roughly speaking, a penny compared to their income from performances in professional tournaments — but the British, to find fault, may well call it «funding from the state».
Finally, the release reads as follows: “Last year, the option of personal statements was not viable. Since then, active engagement with the government and interested tennis organizations has allowed us to refine the form of statements and develop effective measures for their implementation and compliance. This approach enjoys full support of the UK government, the All England Club, Asia Pacific, WTA and ITF.Since for all this time it has not been reported anywhere that Russian and Belarusian tennis players were supposed to make any statements, it remains to be assumed that these are some papers that they will need to sign in order to participate in Wimbledon. But what will be contained in these statements? There are no details in the release, the aforementioned tennis organizations have not yet responded to requests at the time of writing this material. And maybe there, in fact, anything. For example, the demand to condemn the SVO, which they have already tried to present to Russian racing drivers, and, according to the President of the Russian Ski Racing Federation Elena Vyalbe, to Russian skiers.
It is possible, of course, that Russian and Belarusian tennis players have already signed some statements last year — without any attention to this process, and the All England Club has now decided to remind about it in order to protect itself from criticism as much as possible. Which, however, has already been received: in Ukraine they called the intention to allow Russians and Belarusians to Wimbledon «immoral» and called on the British government not to issue visas to Russian and Belarusian tennis players. It is not known for certain. Only one thing is clear — the similarity of this situation with the one that has developed around the recommendations of the IOC.
Thomas Bach and his associates seem to recommend allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete — but with such conditions that a categorical minority will fit them , and the first reaction that occurs among those who are admitted is far from censorship. Wimbledon seems to theoretically allow Russians and Belarusians — but in practice it may well turn out that none of them will reach the emerald courts in the suburbs of London. In general, the very case when the expression «the devil is in the details» is close to its direct meaning: that the IOC, that the organizers of Wimbledon, in their attitude towards athletes from Russia and Belarus, are definitely not on the side of the world.
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