Federations of Belarus, Russia comment on state of affairs in tennis

“As for the ATP and WTA tournaments, we see no problems here. We do not see any problems in junior tennis either, since Tennis Europe has decided that children may play everywhere. There are problems only with the UK,” Shamil Tarpishchev said.

He explained that the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) and WTA (Women's Tennis Association) are purely sports organizations that do not interfere with politics. “That is why I think that tennis, unlike other sports, is taking the right approach towards sport and politics,” the president of the Russian Tennis Federation said.

As for the Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee said that the main decisions should be made at the level of international federations, Shamil Tarpishchev said. “We can expect these decisions by the summer, not earlier,” he added.

In turn, Chairman of the Belarusian Tennis Federation Sergei Rutenko noted that the charters of the professional associations clearly stipulate: athletes enter tournaments based on rankings and without national origin discrimination. However, he pointed out that this year the organizers of Wimbledon began to hide behind the requirements of the British government.

As BelTA reported earlier, in 2022 the organizers of Wimbledon banned the Russian and Belarusian tennis players. They cited Russia's policy in Ukraine as the reason. This decision displeased the ATP and WTA management, and they responded by stripping Wimbledon of ranking points.

This year the organizers are expected to let Russian and Belarusian athletes participate in Wimbledon and other competitions in the UK.

Shamil Tarpishchev and Sergei Rutenko added that the federations of Belarus and Russia had established friendly and partnership relations. The parties support each other in the international arena and organize joint competitions.