Russian players banned at Wimbledon: Pawns in the political game or more at stake?
Global News
The move has been criticized by other players as well as both the men’s and women’s tennis governing bodies, which have stripped the event of ranking points.
A ban on Russian and Belarusian tennis players at this year’s Wimbledon has become a contentious issue as the championships kicked off this week.
The All England Club has barred all Russian and Belarusian players from competing at the prestigious Grand Slam event because of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, now in its fifth month.
Top-ranked men’s tennis player Daniil Medvedev, eighth-ranked Andrey Rublev, world number six Aryna Sabalenka, and former women’s number one Victoria Azarenka of Belarus are among those who have been sidelined by the ban.
The move has been criticized by other players as well as both the men’s and women’s tennis governing bodies, which have stripped the event of ranking points.
The ban “unfairly” targets individual players who are being treated as “pawns in this whole political game,” but there is much more at stake, some analysts say.
“It is highly symbolic and there are economic and political impacts for the country that’s the target of the boycotts,” said Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, a retired professor from the University of Toronto specializing in critiques of the Olympic industry and gender issues in sport.
Daniel Rubenson, professor of politics at Toronto Metropolitan University, said Wimbledon’s stance can be meaningful if it gets traction from other sporting bodies — but it won’t end the war.
“This is not just kind of putting a Ukraine flag pin on your lapel. This is actually costly,” he told Global News.
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