John McEnroe didn't agree with Russians and Belarussians being banned from Wimbledon last year and he's hoping this year sees the ban lifted.
Very few people agreed with the initial ban showing support to their fellow players and McEnroe vocally opposed it more than once. His main reason was that he didn't see the point of it as the players were neither responsible nor can influence it.
Obviously, this is a horrific situation which is going on in the war, and people deal with it in different ways. I disagreed with it last year that Wimbledon didn’t allow Russian or Belarusian players to play. I would disagree with it this year. I don’t know what they’re going to do.
The former player spoke in favour of players offering to donate the prize money for those affected, a gesture he found peaceful in nature. In a further comment, McEnroe called it a situation nobody wants underlining the need to stop punishing players for something they have nothing to do with.
It’s a situation that no one wants. So hopefully, something will change that allows the players to play. It happens that in our sport, some of our top male and female players come from those two countries. They shouldn’t, I don’t believe, be punished for something that they have nothing to do with.
Sabalenka just won the Australian Open and if the ban stays in place that would be a major-winning player this year who would not be allowed to attend. She played in the semi-final in 2021 at Wimbledon.
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