An Olympic exception was made for tennis players from Russia and Belarus

“The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Paralympic Committee (IPC) allow qualified and eligible athletes with Russian and Belarusian passports to participate in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris in a neutral status. For its part, the ITF confirms that tennis players from these countries can also participate in Olympic and Paralympic tennis tournaments as neutral athletes if they meet the requirements of the IOC and IPC,” the ITF said.

If this decision was greeted with open arms on the eastern shore of the Peipus Bay, then, of course, not in Ukraine. The ITF’s decision angered tennis players there.

According to the rules, most places at the Olympic Games are filled based on world rankings. Thus, the top 56 players will earn a berth in Paris, but they must also fulfill an additional criterion: if a player has not represented his team at least twice during the Olympic cycle in an international tournament – i.e. Billie Jean King or Davis Cup – he will not be given an Olympic berth .

However, the national teams of Russia and Belarus have been excluded from the international arena since the start of the war in Ukraine, which is why they did not meet the criterion under consideration.

However, the ITF has the right to make exceptions in this matter, and so they considered that in the case of tennis players from Russia and Belarus this point of the rule could be left unnoticed.

Among the 60 best tennis players in the world among women there are 11 tennis players from aggressor countries, among men there are five. A maximum of four athletes from each country are allowed to participate in the Olympic Games.