THE GOVERNING BODIES OF TENNIS have confirmed that while players from Russia and Belarus will continue to be allowed to compete in international tennis events on Tour and at the Grand Slams, they will not compete under the name or flag of Russia or Belarus “until further notice”.
The development is just the latest fallout from the sporting world in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The fact that world tennis has not taken the route of other world bodies like badminton in allowing players to compete is critical considering that Russia has four male and three female stars in the Top 30 rankings. It’s even more so in men’s tennis seeing as Daniil Medvedev is World No. 1 and Andrey Rublev at sixth in the rankings.
Additionally, the WTA and ATP boards have made the decision to suspend the WTA / ATP combined event, scheduled this October in Moscow.
In a related action, the ITF board has suspended the Russian Tennis Federation and Belarus Tennis Federation membership and withdrawn their entries from all ITF international team competition until further notice. The action follows the cancellation of all ITF tournaments in Russia and Belarus indefinitely.
