Daniil Medvedev asked for assurance he does not support Putin in order to compete at Wimbledon
Grand slam champion Daniil Medvedev might have to leap by means of a couple of diplomatic hoops if he needs to compete at Wimbledon later this yr.
Requested at a U.Okay. Parliament choose committee assembly on Tuesday about Medvedev competing at Wimbledon, British Sports activities Minister Nigel Huddleston mentioned he might search “assurances” that the Russian star, who received his first grand slam on the U.S. Open final yr, doesn’t assist Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Completely no one flying the flag for Russia must be allowed or enabled,” mentioned Huddleston.
“We want some potential assurance that they don’t seem to be supporters of Putin and we’re contemplating what necessities we might must attempt to get some assurances alongside these traces.”
Huddleston mentioned he was in contact with the match organizers, the All England Garden Tennis Membership (AELTC), and that discussions have been going down.
CNN reached out to the AELTC however has not acquired a direct response.
Present guidelines permit Russian and Belarusian gamers to compete on the boys’s ATP and ladies’s WTA tour however solely as impartial athletes.
Russia and Belarus, which helped stage the invasion of Ukraine, are banned from staff occasions such because the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup as sport continues to show its again on Putin.
“My message is all the time the identical — I need peace in all the world,” Medvedev informed reporters earlier this month when requested in regards to the warfare.
CNN has contacted Medvedev’s staff about Huddleston’s feedback however didn’t obtain a direct response.
Nonetheless, WTA head Steve Simon mentioned he doesn’t need gamers to be banned if they do not publicly criticize the “choices of an authoritarian management.”
“You by no means know what the long run might carry,” Simon informed the BBC Tuesday.
“However I can inform you that we have now by no means banned athletes from collaborating on our tour as the results of political positions their management might take.
“So it will take one thing very vital for that to alter, however once more we do not know the place that is going.”
The WTA must change its guidelines ought to the federal government resolve to ban Russian gamers however Simon mentioned it will not be a transfer he helps.
“I really feel very strongly that these particular person athletes shouldn’t be those which might be being penalized by the selections of an authoritarian management that’s clearly doing horrible, reprehensible issues.”
Wimbledon is scheduled to run between June 27 and July 10.
