Wimbledon set to ban Russian and Belarusian players from competing at All England Club | Tennis News

US Open champion Dannil Medvedev, men’s world number eight Andrey Rublev and and women’s fourth-ranked Aryna Sabalenka are set to be banned from featuring at Wimbledon under the ruling

US Open champion Daniil Medvedev would be banned from Wimbledon

Russian and Belarusian players are set to be banned from competing at this year’s Wimbledon.

An announcement is expected from the All England Club later on Wednesday which would rule out US Open champion Dannil Medvedev, men’s world number eight Andrey Rublev and women’s fourth-ranked Aryna Sabalenka from featuring in the Grand Slam.

Medvedev reached the fourth round of Wimbledon last year, while Sabalenka was a beaten semi-finalist.

Russian world number 15 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka – a two-time Australian Open champion – will also miss out.

The All England Club has been in discussions with the UK Government regarding whether to allow Russian and Belarusian players to play in the event following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Last month, sports minister Nigel Huddleston suggested Medvedev and his fellow Russian players should not be allowed to compete at Wimbledon unless they somehow assured the government they were not supporters of Vladimir Putin.

The Wimbledon Championships start on June 27

Wimbledon is the first tennis tournament to suspend individuals from Russia and Belarus, due to the invasion of the Ukraine.

To date, Russian and Belarusian athletes have been permitted to continue playing in ATP, WTA and ITF competitions as long as they do so under a neutral flag and with no anthem played.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday a ban on Russian players would hurt Wimbledon itself given Russia’s tennis prowess and was “unacceptable”.

“Given that Russia is a strong tennis country the competitions [which take this decision] will suffer from this,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

“To make sports people hostages of political intrigue is unacceptable. I hope the players won’t lose their fitness.”

The Grand Slam begins on Monday, June 27 and concludes on Sunday, July 10.