No world ranking points at Wimbledon in 2022?
After Wimbledon announced a few weeks ago that it would exclude Russian and Belarusian players from the 2022 edition, there is a discussion about not awarding world ranking points for Wimbledon and its associated tournaments.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: May 12, 2022, 03:58 pm
Corresponding meetings on the part of the ATP have taken place in Madrid and Rome in the past few days. The players in the players' council in particular have taken on the topic. This is reported by the Daily Mail .
The background is that due to Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, Wimbledon will not allow Russian and Belarusian players at the 2022 Wimbledon tournament - nor at the preparatory tournaments hosted by the British Tennis Association (such as Queen's, Birmingham, Nottingham and Eastbourne)
The problem: With its decision, Wimbledon indirectly interferes with the ATP (and WTA) - this ultimately awards the world ranking points. Players who are excluded from tournaments due to political decisions will experience a disadvantage if the eligible players are awarded world ranking points as usual.
The ATP and WTA had only acted for the regular tournaments to let the Russian and Belarusian professionals play under a neutral flag. In the team events (Davis Cup, Billie Jean King Cup) organized by the ITF, the Russian and Belarusian teams were excluded.
Wimbledon decision was sharply criticized
The All England Club's decision to exclude the Russian and Belarusian tennis players caused a stir - and some criticism. While Ukrainian professionals agreed with the decision and called for action from the ATP and WTA, many others criticized the measure, including Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev. Martina Navratilova didn't approve either.
A waiver of world ranking points would at least bring some kind of equality in terms of ranking. In addition to the ranking itself, this is also decisive for the qualification for the individual tournaments, as well as for bonus payments at the end of the year.
The question would be to what extent the tournaments would lose importance without world ranking points and whether many players would then switch to parallel events.