Cameron Norrie wants Russian players back for 2023 Wimbledon

James Richardson 17 Dec 2022 8:05 PM

Cameron Norrie

British No 1 Cameron Norrie feels that the ban on Russian players at the 2022 Championships Wimbledon was unfair.

He said it was a huge blow to the likes of Daniil Medvedev or Andrey Rublev who have a realistic shot at winning Grand Slams.

Norrie hopes the ban gets lifted for 2023, insisting that he wants to face the best players in the world at his home Slam.

“For me, I want the best players in the world to be playing,” 14th-ranked Norrie told reporters at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

“I felt last year was tough for those guys, especially for Daniil and for Andrey, who have a chance of winning Wimbledon; especially I know how much those guys sacrificed with their careers and their goals are obviously very high to be winning Slams.

“So I really did feel bad for those guys.”

Norrie enjoyed his best ever Grand Slam performances with the Russians absent from Wimbledon but says that he is focused on improving his own game and pishing the envelope at Slams.

“For me I’m just going to focus on my stuff and keep trying to improve,” he continued.

“This year I had a great run there and hopefully looking to do that again and hopefully looking to get some points there next year.”

Rublev, who has been vehemently anti-war since the first news broke about Russian activities in the Ukraine, feels the ban isn’t helpful.

“If they ban us for the second year, we will see no changes and will be worst for tennis,” Rublev said in a recent interview with claytenis.com.

“It doesn’t help the situation. We want to show that tennis can be bigger than politics.”

Rublev wants to work with organisers to find a way to take part in the next Wimbledon.

He added: “So we were offering this, but they are not interested. They really don’t want to help. The government of England probably proved that for them is all about politics. They are showing that politics is more important than peace. We can show a strong message, at least for one time, that sport can be separated from political issues.

“Could be a good start. I know that’s difficult, because they will always use sport to manipulate politics.”