Russia, Saudi Arabia, Wimbledon - Strange times in tennis
Sport usually also has a political component. Rarely has this been shown more clearly than in the past few days.
by Jens Huiber
last edit:
Dec 10, 2022, 08:46 am
Who hasn't noticed: At the beginning of December, a small group of former and still active players set out for St. Petersburg to contest an exhibition match there. As expected, this did not go down well with Sergiy Stakhovsky, after all, his home country was invaded by Russia in February. Stakhovsky called on ATP via Twitter to ban the active players (such as Laslo Djere, Pedro Martinez and Bernabe Zapata Miralles) and asked Viktor Troicki and Janko Tipsarevic via SMS if they, how to in Vienna and maybe also in Kiev would probably say ran into something.
The reactions were divided on the various channels. In any case, Troicki and Tipsarevic agreed that Stakhovsky should mind his own business. Even if they didn't put it that bluntly (the Ukrainian also published the two conversations on Twitter). There is only black or white in the comments: one side supports Stakhovsky's concerns, the other clearly points out that there are double standards: After all, nobody in the tennis circus would have boycotted the USA when NATO was in Belgrade in Balkan War would have bombed. And someone is supposed to claim again that sport has nothing to do with politics.
Fine for Wimbledon
Somehow it fits the message that the ATP not only hit the tournament in Wimbledon with a fine (easily bearable for the organizers) with one, but also threatened to exclude the traditional tournament from the tour, should it be like this one year will continue to exclude players from Russia and Belarus from participating. This looks like a showdown in which there could be two losers. It's almost funny that Elena Rybakina, a Moscow-born and resident athlete, won the Church Road title in 2022. Under the flag of Kazakhstan, but with a strong Russian touch.
And then there was the exhibition fight tournament in Saudi Arabia, which took place without any need and which not only attracted many current international stars, but also an amazing entourage of journalists and former industry greats. That human rights in this country do not meet acceptable standards - yes, fine, ugly, but what should you do (little tip: don't participate)? The fact that hardly anyone watches the matches live on site doesn't matter either. Because, as a commentator from one of the broadcasting stations announced on Thursday, the event will be broadcast in more than 140 countries.
Well then.