After warning about it a few days ago, WTA chief Steve Simon has now promised strong reactions to Wimbledon's ban on Russian and Belarusian tennis players.
The AELTC's decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players from Wimbledon created a storm in tennis circles. We've seen many reactions to the decision, mostly negative, from players, coaches, pundits, and former players.
The LTA, the governing body of British tennis, banned the players from any events in the United Kingdom, which was another move that was also heavily criticized.
On top of that, reports from Italy suggested that the organizers of the Italian Open in Rome may consider doing the same. Maybe also as a reaction to that, the WTA chief, Simon, came out with a promise of 'strong reactions' to the decision.
It was an effort to protect their players, which is the association's job. Speaking to the Tennis Podcast, Simon said:
"We don't have the same jurisdiction over the Grand Slams as we do (over) our own sanctioned events. We have precedents ... where these situations may have occurred where fines and tournament sanctions have been imposed."
"We need to sit down with our tournament, our player councils and I suppose our board and see where everything's at. I do think that you'll see some strong reactions that will come from us, but what those are and how far they'll go is still to be determined."
Simon's opinion is clear. While many assume that sports and politics should not mix, according to him, it's impossible to avoid it at all times, and this has been the case with the recent ban.
"People take the position that sports and politics shouldn't match and shouldn't be intertwined, but that's not the reality. At times sports does cross into politics and here is a situation where politics is crossing into sports. It is real life."
"The announcement that came out was extremely disappointing, to say the least. The one thing that this sport has always agreed upon - we don't agree on a lot of things but the one thing we have always been united on - was that entry into our events ... has always been based up on merit and without discrimination."
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