Wimbledon latest: ATP willing to restore rankings points
The president of the ATP, Andrea Gaudenzi says that the tour will consider restoring ranking points to Wimbledon if the ban on Russian and Belarusian players is lifted.
Gaudenzi insists that in the interests of fairness they cannot allow the ATP rankings to be compromised by what they view as discrimination.
The top men’s professional tour boss said that Wimbledon and British tennis authorities should have included the ATP and WTA tours in their discussions regarding action against Russia.
Gaudenzi believes that the Wimbledon debacle has further illustrated the need for tennis to have a single unifying governing body.
When asked to clarify the ATP’s stance on Wimbledon in a recent video conference, Gaudenzi said: “The reason why we removed the points at Wimbledon is known; it is a matter of fairness and discrimination in response to a unilateral decision of the tournament that we do not consider right.
“Such a decision should have been taken collectively involving all seven components of tennis.
“This story proves once more that we need a unique governance in tennis.”
The door remains open for the restoration of points but that would require backtracking on the part of Wimbledon organisers.
Gaudenzi revealed that Russian players were prepared to make statements against military action in the Ukraine to secure participation.
“Having said this, we would be very happy to return the points to Wimbledon if the ban on Russians and Belarusians, who have said they are willing to make written statements because none of them is in favour of war were lifted.
“From a ranking point of view, we want to have a ranking in 2022 where each player had access to the same number of points. This is the only way to have a fair ranking at the end of the year.
“If we gave protection to those who played well at Wimbledon in 2021 it would be even more unfair to those who play well in 2022, because the points would still expire after 52 weeks as always happens.
“We can’t protect seven or eight players by creating even more damage to everyone else. Unfortunately, Wimbledon points will be missing in the year-end ranking, but from our point of view it is the fairest choice and WTA agrees with us.”
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