The Russian Andrey Rublev (ATP 8) considered that the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian players from the Wimbledon tournament because of the conflict in Ukraine was “totally discriminatory”.
“The reasons they (red: the organizers of Wimbledon) gave us had, how to say, no sense, they were not logical“, he said on the sidelines of the ATP tournament in Belgrade. “What is happening now is totally discriminatory against us“, he continued.
“It won’t change anything“, also assured Andrey Rublev, who had written “No war please” on a television camera during the Dubai tournament just after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Giving tournament prizes to humanitarian aid, to families who are suffering, to children who are suffering, that’s something that would have a little impact.“, he blurted out. “In this case, tennis would be the only sport to give away such an amount, and it would be thanks to Wimbledon, who would get all the glory.“
A “crazy” decision for Djokovic
Meanwhile, world No. 1 Novak Djokovic called the Wimbledon tournament decision “crazy”, while saying he “would always condemn war, being himself a child of war“. The Serb spoke on Wednesday after his first match at the Belgrade tournament.
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Djokovic in the last four in Belgrade
Novak Djokovic qualified for the semi-finals of the Belgrade tournament by winning his second success in less than 24 hours. Forced to fight for 3h22′ on Wednesday against Laslo Djere (ATP 50), the world No. 1 needed 2h19′ to overcome the resistance of Miomir Kecmanovic (38) Thursday afternoon. He won 4-6 6-3 6-3 ahead of his compatriot. Djokovic, who was playing his sixth match of the year only, will come up against Russian Karen Khachanov (26) in the semi-finals.