Wimbledon’s ban “harmful precedent”? Tell that to Mariupol

Several injured Russian and Belarusian tennis players can be considered as collateral damage. Now it may annoy them a bit, but pretty soon they will fly around the world again, relieving with just one good massage. Both they and their ratings will be restored.

Tens of thousands of innocent victims of the war in Ukraine will not go anywhere. They are not restored in their mass graves.

And please, please, don’t try the most weary and discredited traits about how you can’t mix sports and politics. They connect in the thighs, head and heart.

Wimbledon is not just an annual tennis tournament hosted by the English club SW19. It is synonymous with the cultural identity of England and a symbol of the central place of sport in world affairs. It just can’t choose to belong to this world or stay at a comfortable distance.

Wimbledon admits this. He introduced his ban on the recommendation of the British government. “We still do not want to accept that success or participation in Wimbledon is used in favor of the propaganda machine of the Russian regime, which through its tightly controlled state media has a recognized history of using sporting success to support the triumphant narrative of the Russian people,” he said.

Please, please, don’t try the most weary and discredited statements about how sports and politics shouldn’t mix. They connect in the thighs, head and heart.

Sadly, the ATP claims that Wimbledon could have left the choice of individual players as neutral by signing a declaration of renunciation of Russia’s war. That’s right, Wimbledon says it will put them and their families at risk. Won’t they or can’t speak, Wimbledon feels sorry for them.

The ATP / WTA decision to waive Wimbledon’s rating points is as far-fetched as it is deaf. On the one hand, it is self-sabotage. No matter that Wimbledon is held privately, which has long prevented the body of players, they all want this prize. To expect that most, if not all, big names will play anyway is literally pointless.

For another it means even if Novak Djokovic defends his titlehe will lose 2,000 points that were with him, virtually assuring Daniil Medvedev of overtaking him at number 1. Medvedev, if you forgot, is Russian.

So the ATP and WTA are cutting off their noses in anger with their faces. So go ahead. It is an unnecessary mutilation, but it will cure. There will be neither tens of thousands of dead in Ukraine, nor the lives of millions of their displaced compatriots, nor the heart of their country for many decades.

The ATP says Wimbledon’s position “re-emphasizes the need for a unified governance structure in professional tennis so that decisions of this nature can be made together.” No, it illuminates the bloody instigator of war and his bloody war machine and his bloody horrible war.

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