While professional tennis players continue to prepare for the season starting in mid-January, functionaries and management are trying to protect themselves from surprises in 2023.

The only Grand Slam tournament that refused to accept Russians on its courts was already deprived of rating points last summer. And in order to avoid a repetition of the situation, the heads of world tennis decided to increase the punishment.

Wimbledon received a huge fine for Russophobia – and a final warning.

“I’ll try to play next year”

The last tennis year ended with the final tournament, in which our athletes showed themselves in different ways. Praised at the beginning of the year, Medvedev could not make it out of the group in the playoffs, just like Kasatkina. While the less status Rublev unexpectedly reached the semi-finals.

Nevertheless, out of the 16 strongest players of the season, three are representatives of Russia. The best indicator among all countries! Further, two representatives each have Spain (Alcaras and Nadal) and Greece (Tsitsipas and Sakkari). This statistic alone is enough to understand the status of our athletes in the world tennis arena.

Photo: © IMAGO / Mathias Schulz / imago-images.de / Global Look Press

How the new season will be arranged and whether any restrictions and bans will remain on the tour is not yet clear, but there are already first pleasant trends. For example, Djokovic, whose road to Australia was closed due to the Serb’s unwillingness to vaccinate, has now received a green light. The public will see the legend on the courts of Melbourne in mid-January.

Less transparent situation with another tournament from the “big four”. Wimbledon was already punished by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in May for the decision of the British to remove Russian and Belarusian players from participation in the tournament. Then the most status competition on the grass was deprived of rating points, thereby making it, in fact, an exhibition one.

Has this affected the motivation of tennis players to come to London? Not yet.

– I’m not the one who makes decisions in ATP, I’m not the one who makes decisions in Wimbledon. Maybe it’s the government pushing them, maybe it’s their decision. There are many mistakes behind this. So if I can play, I’ll be happy to play. I love Wimbledon as a tournament. I will try to play next year and try to play well there,” Daniil Medvedev said this summer.

Million fine

Five months after the end of Wimbledon 2022, the tour management decided to toughen the punishment for the tournament and fined the organizers $ 1 million for not allowing Russian and Belarusian tennis players.

In words, the punishment sounds serious, but if you look at the prize fund of this year’s English tournament, the penalties no longer look so formidable.

This year, after the deprivation of rating points, the organizers tried to increase the motivation of the participants by increasing the prize fund. The figures increased by 15 percent, and the total amount was almost $50 million. Record for the English tournament, and second place after the Australian Open 2022.

If you compare the amount with the price for keeping Russia and Belarus out, you get a ratio of 1 to 50. In this proportion, the sanctions from the ATP are no longer so impressive and seem quite bearable for Wimbledon if they want to maintain their anti-Russian position.

However, in addition to money, the association threatened the organizers with exclusion from the tour if the Russians and Belarusians were again suspended from Wimbledon and other British tournaments in 2023. And here reputational and image losses can be much worse. If you are not on the tour, then another tournament, more attractive in the context of the world ranking, may well be put in your place. And it is no longer necessary to expect that top tennis players will continue to come to London as a tribute to tradition. Risking centuries of Wimbledon history for a dubious political statement is a controversial decision to say the least.