By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, May 1, 2022

Rafael Nadal opposes Wimbledon's ban of Russians and Belarusians branding it "unfair."

Nadal, who rallied from a two-set deficit to defeat Daniil Medvedev in the Australian Open final, showed his support of Medvedev, Russians and Belarusians when asked his position on the Wimbledon ban in Madrid today. 

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"I think it's very unfair of my Russian tennis mates, my colleagues," Nadal told the media in Madrid. "In that sense it's not their fault what's happening in this moment with the war. In that sense, well, talking about colleagues, I don't know what to say.

"I'm sorry for them. I wish it was not this way, but at the end of the day we know that this is what we have."

Wimbledon announced it's banning Russians and Belarusians from the 2022 Championships in condemnation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. All England Club officials said they don't want to give Russian President Vladimir Putin a potential propaganda platform on the game's greatest stage.



The 36-year-old Spaniard's comments opposing the ban come about 10 days after world No. 1 Novak Djokovic called Wimbledon's ban "crazy." .

"I cannot support the Wimbledon decision. It’s not the athlete’s fault. When politics interfere with sports, it usually doesn’t turn out well,” Djokovic told the media in Belgrade last month.

The LTA banned Belarusian and Russian players from the British grass-court swing as well. 

Two-time Wimbledon winner Nadal said the ball is in the players' court now in crafting a response.

While it's extremely unlikely there would be a boycott, some speculate the ATP and WTA, which both oppose Wimbledon's ban as discriminatory, could decide to take action on the allocation of the tournament's ranking points.

"Let's see what happens in the next weeks, if the players will take some kind of decision in that regard," Nadal said. "In that sense, well, there is one thing that's negative, there are things that are clear.

"When the government imposes some restrictions, you just have to follow them. In that case, the government gave a recommendation, and Wimbledon just took their decision, the more drastic position that they could take without taking into account -- the government didn't force them to do it...

"But at the end of the day, it's not less true that we are ATP, are the tournament that have the most points, right? They are the most important. The 2,000 points, whenever we go to the Grand Slams, they are really important and we have to go to those tournaments."



Djokovic reiterated his opposition to Wimbledon's band and said the ATP could opt to protect ranking points  Russians and Belarusians earned at the 2021 Wimbledon to diminish a rankings hit for them this summer. 

"I still stand by my position that I don't support the decision," Djokovic told the media in Madrid. "I think it's just not fair, it's not right, but it is what it is. You know, they are entitled to make the decision, and now I guess it's on player council, the tour management, to really decide along with the players what is the best solution in this situation, whether they keep the points, protect the points, take away 50% of the points or whatever.

"We had in the last couple of years, because of Corona, some reduction on points, and different, I guess, models were implemented that were not implemented before because of Corona in order to allow players not to play if they don't want to play but still have their points."