Because players from Russia and Belarus are not allowed to start in Wimbledon, no world ranking points should be awarded. This puts a strain on the atmosphere before the tennis classic.
Wimbledon thrives on its great tradition and is still considered the most conservative tournament in the tennis world. However, this does not mean that the organizers are fundamentally opposed to innovations: For the first time in the history of the tournament, the “middle sunday” not scheduled as a fixed rest day this year. So far, in 134 editions of the tournament on Sunday after the first week, only four times have been short-term matches been scheduled, mostly because of previous freak weather conditions.
The tournament management remained firm on another, much-discussed topic before the start on Monday (June 27th, 2022): The ban on players from Russia and Belarus, who had already left the tournament in April as part of the sanctions due to the Ukraine war decided was still “the right decision”, confirmed the tournament director Sally Bolton on Thursday at the BBC.
No world ranking points at Wimbledon
The professional organizations ATP and WTA, annoyed by the invitation of Russian and Belarusian professionals, then announced that he would remove the most important tennis tournament in the world from the world rankings. An escalation that also Wimbledon was received with “great regret”, as tournament boss Bolton said, but she passed the responsibility for it ATP and WTA further. Bolton stressed that she was in further talks with the organizers of the tour. It is still possible that they reversed the decision before the first matches at the Church Road start.
Djokovic with clear criticism
Novak Djokovic will serve there as the defending champion. The Serb was one of the players in the run-up who had clearly criticized the deletion of the world ranking points. Djokovic, currently third in the world rankings and number one at Wimbledon, would have been one of the beneficiaries after the exclusion of the Russian world number one Daniil Medvedev. In the event of a Wimbledon win, would have Djokovic 2,000 points for the ranking and can make up a lot of ground on Medvedev. Now the Serb, as last year’s winner, could even fall further behind in the ranking because the points in the world rankings are no longer valid after a year. Djokovic demanded the ATP also therefore to leave the points collected in Wimbledon in the previous year untouched.
Tomljanovic threatens to crash: “Very unfair”
A similar statement was also made Alya Tomljanovic. The Australian reached her first quarter-finals at Wimbledon last year and climbed to 38th in the world rankings – her best-ever finish. But she too is now threatened with a crash, possibly down to around 80th place, if her strong result from last year’s Wimbledon is no longer taken into account in the ranking: “We are robbed of the opportunity to defend the points from last year. That’s really very unfair“, said Tomljanovic to the “GuardiansAt the same time, however, she confirmed that a boycott of the prestigious lawn tournament had never been an issue for her.
Cameron Norriethe number one in the British men’s, had suspected in the run-up to the tournament that many stars could start in Wimbledon give up if there are no points for the ranking. However, this gloomy forecast has not been confirmed. Only the Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, finalist in 2014, justified her rejection with the lack of a chance of world ranking points. But everything else that has a reputation and can play is in the famous part of the city SW 19 at the beginning: “For me, Wimbledon is Wimbledon, with or without points“, said Angelique Kerber, who triumphed on the holy lawn in 2018. She wants to feel the special flair again this time, Kerber told the “FAZ”: “Anyone with any doubts about Wimbledon this year has misunderstood the importance of the tournament and the sport itself.”