Andrey Rublev candidly blames the British government for Russian players not getting an invitation to play in the Laver Cup

Andrey Rublev candidly blames the British government for Russian players not getting an invitation to play in the Laver Cup

Andrey Rublev

Due to the prolonged war between Russia and Ukraine, there have been many disparities against Russian players across various sports. In tennis, Russian and Belarussian players were banned from playing Wimbledon as the AELTC found it right to stand up for Ukraine against the Russian atrocities by banning the Russian players.

The move, at that time too, was heavily criticized as it punished Russian tennis players for a crime they didn’t even commit. The Laver Cup this year was played in the O2 Arena in London and didn’t feature any Russian players either. Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev were a part of Team Europe when they won last year but missed out this time.

Rublev recently revealed that he wasn’t invited to play while Medvedev was in the mix, there were a lot of complications involving the British government and their Anti-Russian stand.

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“Not me, I know that Daniil (Medvedev) – yes. But there is also the British government, and they hinted that it probably won’t work,” Rublev said as quoted by Championat.

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Daniil Medvedev opens up on why he didn’t compete in the Laver Cup

Daniil Medvedev
Daniil Medvedev

Former World No.1 Daniil Medvedev, who is currently playing in Nur-Sultan this week, also revealed that he could’ve tried to play the Laver Cup but didn’t intend to cause anyone any trouble given the situation between UK and Russia.

“I don’t have a visa to the UK, I’m not sure if they would give me one. Accordingly, I didn’t want to create any problems myself, or to have them created for me, so I simply agreed to play this tournament when it was 250[Astana Open], and then it became 500,” Medvedev said.

Medvedev defeated Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the first round in straight sets 6-3,6-1 and will now face Emil Ruusuvuori in the Round of 16 on Thursday.

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