Djokovic shoots against the Wimbledon organizers

After his opening victory at his home tournament in Belgrade, the Serb called the decision “crazy” on Wednesday evening. Tennis professionals or athletes in general had nothing to do with the war, said Djokovic. “When politics interferes in sport, the result is not good,” said the six-time Wimbledon winner. In view of the wars in the Balkans, the 34-year-old recalled that he was a child of war himself. Djokovic emphasized that he was the first to condemn wars, also with a view to the suffering of the civilian population. In response to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the Wimbledon organizers announced on Wednesday that professionals from Russia and Belarus would not be allowed to take part in the grass classic from June 27th to July 10th. Those affected include world number two Daniil Medvedev from Russia and his compatriot Andrej Rublev (ATP 8th) as well as world number four Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus among women. Currently, five men and eight women from the top 50 are missing from Wimbledon. The organizers admitted that it was hard for those affected to suffer from the actions of the Russian leadership. Wimbledon is the first tennis event to take this step. There was also criticism of this from the two professional organizations ATP and WTA. Criticism also from Russia “The WTA has repeatedly emphasized that individual athletes must not be punished or prevented from participating because of their origin or because of decisions made by their countries’ governments,” the women’s organization said in a statement. The WTA will examine steps and possible measures against this decision. The ATP said it was unfair to discriminate against players because of their nationality and was a breach of the rule that participation in the Grand Slam tournament was dependent solely on the ATP ranking. Russia sharply criticized the decision in Wimbledon. “Once again, athletes are being held hostage to some kind of political bias, political intrigue, hostile actions against our country. “This is unacceptable,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday, according to the Interfax agency. Numerous other sports have already excluded athletes from Russia and Belarus from their events in recent weeks.

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Djokovic shoots against the Wimbledon organizers

World number one Novak Djokovic has strongly criticized the exclusion of tennis professionals from Russia and Belarus from this year's Wimbledon tournament.

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