“Families and kids dying and suffering, the rest of the things don’t matter” Rafael Nadal supports Wimbledon’s decision as they are under pressure from the government

“Families and kids dying and suffering, the rest of the things don’t matter” Rafael Nadal supports Wimbledon’s decision as they are under pressure from the government

Rafael Nadal

For the first time, Rafael Nadal has expressed his thoughts on Wimbledon’s ban on Russian and Belarusian players. The Spaniard is a member of the ATP Player Council, which had a say in the tour’s decision to deduct ranking points from the tournament. After he won a record-tying 22nd Grand Slam championship at the French Open, he revealed why the ATP penalised the tournament.

Nadal had been tight-lipped about Wimbledon’s ban on Russian and Belarussian players, saying only that he “wished it wasn’t this way” and that he was involved in discussions on the ATP’s response as a member of the player council. But, for the first time, the world No. 5 has expressed his own feelings on the situation, stating he “respects” the tournament’s prerogative to impose the ban.

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“When you see families and kids dying and suffering, the rest of the things don’t matter”- Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal

The Spaniard addressed his worries over Russia’s escalating invasion of Ukraine to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. Nothing else matters, according to Nadal, when families are suffering and children are dying, least of all Wimbledon and ATP decisions. “First of all, the world of tennis is zero. When you see families and kids dying and suffering, the rest of the things don’t matter. It doesn’t matter what Wimbledon does or what ATP does because the real thing and the real drama is that people are dying and a lot of families are suffering. That’s the main thing, the rest of the things don’t matter,” he said.

“I understand what Wimbledon did. I think it’s fair enough because, in some ways, they are under pressure from the government. But from the ATP’s point of view, they have to protect their members as well. In this case, my Russian colleagues can’t say much but they have, for sure, nothing to do with the war,” Rafael Nadal went on to add.

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