Iga Swiatek thinks tennis could have sent a strong message to Russia had they decided to ban Russian and Belarusian players from competing when the Russian invasion of Ukraine started. Since early 2022 March, Russian and Belarusian have been competing on the ATP and WTA Tours as neutrals.
Wimbledon was the only tournament that didn’t allow Russian and Belarusian players to compete last year. Last week, Wimbledon announced that Russian and Belarusian players will be allowed to return to The Championships in 2023.
“I heard that after World War Two, German players were not allowed as well as Japanese and Italian, and I feel like this kind of thing would show the Russian government that maybe it’s not worth it. I know it’s a small thing because we are just athletes, a little piece in the world but I feel like sport is pretty important and sport has always been used in propaganda.
This is something that was considered at the beginning, tennis didn’t really go that way, but now it would be pretty unfair for Russian and Belarusian players to do that because this decision was supposed to be made a year ago,” Swiatek told the BBC.
Swiatek: Tennis could have done more
Swiatek thinks the “lack of leadership” from the ATP and WTA side contributed to growing tension between…
