Wimbledon's Sweet Promise To Calm Down Gejolak After Lifting The Prohibition Of Appearing For Russian And Belarusian Tennis Players

Illustration of the Wimbledon tennis tournament. (Photo: Twitter/@Wimbledon)

JAKARTA - The ban on Russian and Belarusian players appearing at Wimbledon has been lifted since March. Along with the policy, organizers promised additional financial support for Ukraine.

In a press conference to announce plans for the 2023 Wimbledon tournament, the organizer of the Wimbledon tournament, All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) revealed that one-pound ticket from each ticket sold will be donated to Ukraine.

It is estimated that the total money set aside for ticket sales will be more than 500,000 pounds (around Rp 9.4 billion). Funding will be given to one day in a tournament for 1,000 Ukrainian refugees.

In addition to offering money assistance to refugees, organizer Wimbledon also offered two free hotel rooms for Ukrainian players along with training facilities for the summer grass court tournament session.

In March, AELTC stated that it would not continue the ban on Russian and Belarusian players. This step was taken after they lost their ranking points and were punished by the WTA and ATP with a large fine.

However, there are conditions that must be met by tennis players from Russia and Belarus to be able to participate in the Grand Slam tournament which began on July 3. They must be ready to appear as "neutral" athletes and comply with certain requirements, including a ban on expressing support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Our announcement was made last month after going through careful and in-depth considerations," said AELTC chairman Ian Hewitt as quoted by AFP.

AELTC statement regarding player entries for The Championships 2023 ⬇️

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) March 31, 2023

"At the time, we set factors informing our decision and the cause, taking into account all circumstances, we consider this as the right setting for Wimbledon this year."

"It was a difficult and challenging decision, made with the full support of our British government and international stakeholders in tennis, but did not reduce our total condemnation of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine," AELTC said in a statement.

Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev are both in the men's singles top six. Meanwhile, Belarus's women's number two Aryna Sabalenka won the Grand Slam Australian Open tournament earlier this year.