Wimbledon is considered the most prestigious tournament in tennis. However, ATP and WTA recently decided to strip the ranking points of the competition.
This decision was taken in response to Wimbledon banning Russian and Belarusian players in the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine.
Wimbledon’s decision has ruled out a number of top players like Daniil Medvedev, Arya Sabalenka, and two-time Grand Slam winner Victoria Azarenka.
Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, and Novak Djokovic were not supportive of the decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players. However, former Ukraine pro Sergiy Stakhovsky had expressed his displeasure at how some of his fellow players were against Wimbledon’s decision.
ITF has also decided to withdraw points for Wimbledon juniors and wheelchair events.
On the Court-Side with Beilinson Tennis podcast, Steve Flink, who is the author of ‘Pete Sampras: Greatness revisited’, gave his take on the incident.
“Fairness to the ATP and WTA, I don’t think they were trying to be vengeful. They were trying to use whatever cloud they had to say. ‘If you’re gonna ban the Russians and Belarusians, then we’re gonna do this.’ But this is not an appropriate counter to what Wimbledon did. Just not. It’s their own players and also I don’t think it’s fair to try to diminish Wimbledon in that way. It’s the most prestigious event in the sport. The pre-eminent tournament in tennis.”
Wimbledon 2021 was held from 28 June to 11 July. Almost all the big names in the tennis world participated in the tournament.
Novak Djokovic won the men’s singles event defeating Matteo Berrettini in the finals 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-4, 6-3. Ashleigh Barty defeated Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3 in the finals to win the women’s singles event.
Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic won the men’s doubles event while Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens were victorious in the women’s doubles event. Neal Skupski and Desirae Krawczyk won the mixed doubles event.
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