JAKARTA – Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev is threatened with not being able to appear in the Wimbledon Grand Slam tennis tournament. The world number two athlete can compete if he has signed an anti-President Vladimir Putin form.
Medvedev and other Russian players are required to sign the form if they want to play at Wimbledon. This also applies to Belarusian tennis players.
The form is a form of denial of their loyalty to Vladimir Putin.
The UK's sports minister, Nigel Huddleston, discussed the restrictions for Russian and Belarusian athletes last week. The discussion was carried out in meetings with national institutions.
"I had a nice meeting with various agencies about what we do with sanctions and bans on individual athletes. If Russian or Belarusian athletes want to participate in sport in the UK then they have to be independent and neutral and absolutely so," Huddleston said. Mail.
Individual athletes from the two countries, who intend to appear at Wimbledon under a 'neutral' banner, must provide assurances that they will not receive cash from the excluded countries.
Players looking to play at Wimbledon will also have to confirm they will not be campaigning in support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. They are also prohibited from wearing identifying colors or competing under their country's flag.
"If people say they are neutral athletes, we want guarantees that they are completely neutral and therefore have nothing to do with Putin. If another sport or individual entity chooses to impose an outright ban on Russian or Belarusian athletes then we will support that." too," said Huddleston.
So far, many international sports organizations have banned Russian athletes from competing. However, tennis still allows tennis stars from the Red Bear Country to compete.
The men's tennis world's top 100 ATP rankings contain four Russian players. One of them is Medvedev, who finished second and won the grand slam of the United States Open in 2021.
Meanwhile, on the WTA list there are 10 Russian and Belarusian players in the top 100 rankings. In this list, Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka is ranked the highest in fifth place from other players.
Medvedev has previously refused to be linked with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In addition, he also commented on the situation ahead of Wimbledon at the end of this summer.
"I don't have any response to Wimbledon. Everyone knows what happened. So it's basically impossible of course to ignore it, but I've always said that everyone has a different opinion on different things in the world," he said earlier this month.
"It's very difficult in life to talk about what is fair and unfair. So I of course have my own opinion on different topics, but I prefer to talk about it with my family, with my friends, with my wife, where we can sometimes not agree but we can discuss," he continued.
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