“Tennis players cannot be discriminated by nationality” Hertogenbosch Open disapproves of Wimbledon’s ban on Russian players


“Tennis players cannot be discriminated by nationality” Hertogenbosch Open disapproves of Wimbledon’s ban on Russian players

wimbledon, Marcel hunze

Wimbledon banned the Russians and Belarusian players from participating in the competition. Many players and tennis organizations have shown their disagreements. They have stated this ban to be “Unfair”. Recently Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray have said this ban is unfair to the Russian and Belarusian players in their press conferences at the Madrid Open. They said they were unsupportive of Wimbledon’s decision.

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Wimbledon has banned the Russian and Belarusian players because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. All tennis organization do not support the invasion but feels that banning a player on the basis of their nationality is not correct. Wimbledon last banned players from Japan and Germany from participating in the post World War 2 era due to their country’s actions in the War. Repeating their decision Wimbledon thought that removing the flag from the player’s name is not enough and have to take some actions regarding the war waged by Russia.

‘s Hertogenbosch Open issues strong statement against the Wimbledon ban

marcel hunze
Marcel Hunze, Tournament director of the Hertogenbosch Open

‘s Hertogenbosch Open, also known as the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships, is a grass-court tournament of the ATP 250 category. This year, it starts on 4th June and ends on 12th June. It is considered a preparatory tournament for Wimbledon, which is scheduled this year from 27th June to 10th July. The Hertogenbosch Open got cancelled due to the Pandemic for the last two seasons and this year’s event will be the 31st edition of the tournament.

Marcel Hunze, the director of the Hertogenbosch Open said “Tennis players cannot be discriminated against by nationality. Russian and Belarusian players have the right to register and their participation will only be subject to their position in the ranking. It is not possible for professional tournaments to reject anyone because of their nationality,” as reported by WeloveTennis.

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With such a strong sentence the ATP-250 event clarifies that it does not stand with Wimbledon on their decision of banning the Russian and Belarusian players based on their nationality, just like the ATP, WTA, and PTPA. The Hertogenbosch Open, like all events, will allow players to participate in the tournament as per WTA and ATP’s norm of the players from Russia and Belarus not having their national flags next to their names.

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