Benoit Paire was clearly not buying the ATP's decision to strip points from Wimbledon and has since spoken about his change of ambitions for the tournament.
Last month, Wimbledon organizers said that it had effected a ban on all Russian and Belarusian players from competing at this year's grass-court major in a move fuelled by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in which Belarus is a key ally.
The decision generated widespread criticism from players and fans, but Wimbledon maintained its stance, stating that allowing the players from the two aforementioned countries to compete was only going to promote the ongoing war.
As such, the ATP, one of the harshest critics of the decision, has decided to remove ranking points from the tournament, meaning that players will only compete for prize money and prestige.
While some players, such as World no. 2 Daniil Medvedev, referred to the conclusion as "logical", Paire spoke about the decision to remove Wimbledon's points.
The Frenchman was unimpressed and said that he would attend the event to collect his prize money and called on the ATP to act in the interest of all players.
"I will go to Wimbledon to get my prize money, as I would for an exhibition tournament. This is why I wanted to talk with you guys. Because we are going to play a tournament without any points. When some people had Covid, we didn't say, Oh, okay, we should cancel the tournament altogether. But then we have three or four Russian players, including Medvedev, and we are rallying against Wimbledon."
"I think it's a pity, because if we were to listen to all the players, players do not understand this decision. 99 per cent of players, they want to have points and to play the tournament as it was before. So I want to know if ATP wants to defend players or Russia."
0 Comments