One particular of Britain’s major players has hit out at threats by the ATP and WTA Excursions to terminate the classic pre-Wimbledon tournaments unless of course bans on Russian and Belarusian gamers are overturned.
Gamers these as Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Aryna Sabalenka have been not permitted to play at Wimbledon in 2022, next the invasion of Ukraine.
No official announcement has been manufactured on whether or not that ban will stay for 2023. While the ATP and WTA Excursions don’t have the electrical power to cancel Wimbledon as a grand slam, they can scrap tour functions, this kind of as the time-honoured Queen’s match.
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“It’s a unhappy condition of affairs if Queen’s was not on,” British No.2 Dan Evans explained to The Times.
“I’m not a supporter of the threats. The ATP must not toss stones when they are living in glass residences.
“Queen’s is just one of the greatest and most prestigious tournaments on the tour, which has completed a whole lot for the ATP Tour in its time.”
Wimbledon was stripped of rankings factors in 2022, a move that Australian legend Todd Woodbridge claimed “ruined” the rankings technique for 13 months.
“By virtue of the decision they have manufactured, the rankings are inaccurate and don’t reflect actuality,” he told Huge Environment of Sports in 2022.
“They are correctly null and void.”
The ATP and WTA Tours have stated tournaments organised by Britain’s Garden Tennis Affiliation (LTA) will be cancelled if it continues to training “discrimination dependent on nationality” which is a move that Evans claims won’t fix the challenge.
“I’m a large advocate for the ATP commonly,” the earth No.28 claimed. “They do wonderful points but we have to have reasonable discussions.
“I really don’t assume threatening the LTA with using away the licence for these gatherings is how it truly is going to be settled.”
“It influences all of the Brits,” he included. “They’re not heading to get likelihood or taking part in prospects with a wild card.
“I think typical perception should prevail. The LTA’s hands are tied a minimal bit as nicely. This issue goes a little bit even bigger than tennis federations and governing bodies.”
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