Rafael Nadal, the 21-grand slam winner claimed the ban on Russian and Belarusian players from this year’s Wimbledon Championship as unfair.
“I think it is very unfair for my Russian mates, my colleagues. In that sense, poor them, there’s not much that they can do. At the end of the day, it is not their fault what is happening at this moment with the war,” he said while talking to reporters at the Madrid Open on Sunday.
The All England Club and the Committee of Management of The Championships expressed their support for everyone impacted by the ongoing war in Ukraine in a statement.
It went on to say that it condemned Russia’s actions and after careful evaluation of the situation in the context of its duties to the players and to the community, it will decline entries from Russian and Belarusian players to the Wimbledon Championship in 2022.
But if the circumstances change in the meanwhile, that is before June 2022, the management will reconsider its decision and respond accordingly, the statement said.
