“They decided without talking to anybody” Novak Djokovic discloses Wimbledon had other options instead of putting the ban on Russian players
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Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has started his 2022 French Open campaign brilliantly scoring a straight-set win over Yoshihito Nishioka in the first round. Djokovic, the defending champion at this year’s Roland Garros started his title defence campaign with a 6-3, 6-1, 6-0 win over the Japanese player.
Nishioka had started well in the first few games and had 3 breakpoints in the very first game that went on for 9 minutes but Novak held his serve eventually. The challenger had good shots during the game but Novak’s intensity was on a different level as he wrapped up the match with the match clock just shy of the 2-hour mark.
Post the win, Novak addressed the press and was questioned about the decision by ATP and WTA to dock Wimbledon of all of its points this year as the Grand Slam did not lift the ban on Russian and Belarusian players. Novak was one of the first players to speak out against the ban and made his stand clear once again at the French Open as well.
“I’m for the union”: Novak Djokovic
The ban by ATP and WTA will lead to players losing all of their ranking points, in Novak’s case, all 2000 points he currently has from the title won in 2021 Wimbledon. Djokovic did not stress on that much but he did speak that other options could have been pursued by Wimbledon but the Grand Slam chose not to and the consequence of it has now been a difficult one for everyone involved.
“They still decided for this one without talking to anybody. I’m for the union, always was,” said Djokovic confessing to having seen a document where the UK government had provided solutions for the Russian and Belarusian players’ situation for alternatives to banning them.
Despite the removal of points, Wimbledon has yet not made any change to their plans and it looks unlikely that they would as it would show that they gave up on their position. In such a case, the 2022 Wimbledon Championships will be nothing but a high-paying exhibition event played over a fortnight.
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)