Wimbledon divides the tennis world - Novak Djokovic calls the ban on Russians and Belarusians "crazy"
Is the exclusion of the Russian actors "crazy" or still not enough? Novak Djokovic has now also criticized the ban, as has Martina Navratilova.
by SID
last edit: Apr 21, 2022, 01:02 pm
Novak Djokovic didn't think twice. "I think it's crazy," said Serbia's tennis superstar on the controversial decision from Wimbledon to declare all Russian and Belarusian professionals undesirable as a result of the atrocities in Ukraine. The fact that Djokovic announced this in his Serbian homeland gave the words of the world number one special emphasis.
"I will always be against war, I am a child of war myself. I know what emotional trauma that can trigger, I know what happened here in 1999," said the 34-year-old after his opening victory at the tournament in Belgrade: "Under Because of the war, and we've had a lot of wars here in the Balkans, it's always the ordinary people who suffer. That's why I can't support the Wimbledon decision."
The organizers of the most important tennis tournament in the world announced on Wednesday that no players from the outlawed countries would be allowed to compete on Church Road from June 27th. This measure of the only Grand Slam tournament organized by a private organization (the national associations are responsible for the other three) goes well beyond the course of the ATP and WTA player unions - at whose tournaments the relevant professionals are admitted under a neutral flag.
The trade unions clearly criticized the measure: Of course, the war behavior of the Russians should be "strongly" condemned. Nevertheless, a blanket exclusion of athletes from a country is "discriminatory" (ATP) and "deeply disappointing" (WTA).
Djokovic: War is not the fault of the players
Djokovic also sees it that way, although he would benefit from the decision from London: The Russian Daniil Medvedev, the big rival in the fight for world number one, would be affected by the ban. However, this would hardly please the argumentative "Djoker", who is nevertheless equipped with a fanatical sense of fairness. After all, this war is "not the fault of the players".
The question has the potential to split the sporting world as well as the political one: should individual athletes be held jointly liable for their behavior, even if they behave at least neutrally towards their home country?
Navratilova bursts into tears
"It's not the right way. Tennis is such a democratic sport. It's hard to see how politics is destroying this," said seven-time Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova in an interview with London radio station LBC, at the end of which the 65-year-old was in tears broke out. "As much as I feel for the Ukrainians - this is going further than it should," said the native of the Czech Republic, who found asylum in the United States as a young woman.
However, the English decision found support in the Ukraine. In a joint statement, the top players Elina Svitolina and Marta Kostyuk as well as ex-professional Sergiy Stakhovsky, who took up arms himself to defend his homeland, called for imitation.
"We demand that Russian and Belarusian athletes be banned from participating in any international event," they wrote: "We noted that some of these athletes have vaguely addressed this war, but have never made it clear that Russia and Belarus are involved in this war." on the territory of Ukraine. But silence means support for what is happening. And that leads to the fact that the killing in our homeland continues."