Women’s tennis chief ‘strongly’ opposed to bans for Russian and Belarusian players over Ukraine
Steve Simon, the head of elite women’s tennis tour the WTA, says he “feels very strongly” that players from Russia and Belarus should not be prevented from playing because of the invasion of Ukraine.
It comes after UK government ministers said assurances should be sought from Russian players that they do not support Vladimir Putin before they are allowed to compete at Wimbledon.
WTA chairman and chief executive Simon said it would not be fair to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes because of the “decisions of an authoritarian leadership”.
“We have never banned athletes from participating on our tour as the result of political positions their leadership may take,” he told the BBC.
“So it would take something very, very significant for that to change, but again we don’t know where this is going.
“I feel very, very strongly that again these individual athletes should not be the ones that are being penalised by the decisions of an authoritarian leadership that is obviously doing terrible, reprehensible things.
“But if that happens – which is again part of the overall strategy of making Russia, and Russian citizens, pay the consequence for the decision their government has made – then it won’t be something that we support.
“We are hopeful that they will refrain from that because I think there are an awful lot of other issues that go with it.”
Sports minister Nigel Huddleston raised the prospect of asking Russians to denounce Putin in order to play in the UK during a select committee appearance on Tuesday.
Women’s world No3 Aryna Sabalenka is Bealrusian while there are two Russians in the WTA top 15. Russian Daniil Medvedev tops the men’s rankings.
“We need assurances that they are not supporters of Vladimir Putin and are considering what requirements we may need along those lines,” Huddleston said.
Simon added: “I don’t think you can just pick on the athletes. What are you going to do with the [Russian] refugees that come in? Are you going to treat the refugees differently than the athletes?
“I’m hoping that we continue with the sanctions, we continue doing everything we can to get peace, but again these people are the innocent victims of that, and being isolated as a result of these decisions I don’t think it’s fair.”