ATP and WTA suspend Russia and Belarus but players allowed to compete under neutral flag
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ATP and WTA
Amid the war in Ukraine, Russia has been hit with many sanctions in an attempt to isolate them. The fissures of this have taken on the sporting world as well. Recently, the Ukrainian tennis federation had sent a letter to the ITF, demanded expulsion of the Russian and Belarusian Tennis Federation from the ITF, and also called for a blanket ban on players from both these countries from competing at international tournaments.
Many sporting bodies including FIFA, IOC have strongly condemned the attacks by Russia and have decided to indefinitely suspend all Russian teams, whereas IOC requested other sporting bodies to ban athletes from Russia and Belarus. The tennis scene has followed the same course as well. The three governing bodies in professional tennis the ATP, WTA, and ITF have issued a joint statement in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war.
“The WTA and ATP Boards have made the decision to suspend the WTA / ATP combined event, scheduled this October in Moscow. The ITF Board has made the decision to suspend the Russian Tennis Federation and Belarus Tennis Federation membership and to withdraw their entries from all ITF international team competitions until further notice. This action follows the cancellation of all ITF tournaments in Russia and Belarus indefinitely,” the statement read.
“At this time, players from Russia and Belarus will continue to be allowed to compete in international tennis events on Tour and at the Grand Slams. However, they will not compete under the name or flag of Russia or Belarus until further notice.”
Russian athletes will be allowed to compete at individual tournaments
All the tournaments that were scheduled to take place in Russia have also been canceled indefinitely. Russia and Belarus are banned from the team events, i.e the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup. This means the titleholders in Russia will not be allowed to defend their title in 2022. Athletes from Russia and Belarus will be allowed to participate in individual tournaments but can only compete under a neutral flag.
As a result, players including World No.1 Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Victoria Azarenka among other Russian and Belarusian players can’t compete at teams events but will be allowed to participate in individual tournaments, albeit they cannot compete under the flag of Russia or Belarus for the foreseeable future.
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