The ban on Russian and Belarusian tennis players did not pay off. Both Wimbledon and the British Tennis Federation were heavily fined

The British tennis federation LTA and the Wimbledon organization, which organizes the famous Grand Slam, have been fined heavily for banning Russian and Belarusian tennis players from their tournaments. The bans came in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As they like to say, politics does not belong in sport. Not exactly in the case of the British Tennis Association and the Wimbledon organisers. The latter reacted to the military invasion of Ukraine by banning Russian and Belarusian male and female tennis players.

However, the LTA and Wimbledon’s attitude did not please the ATP and WTA organisations. The ATP has now decided on the final amount of fines it will impose on British tennis.

The association itself was fined $200,000 for each tournament it hosted before Wimbledon. This includes the Queens Club tournament, Eastbourne and three other challengers.

The ATP justified the fine, saying that it was not a fair decision by the LTA and Wimbledon. It further stated that such behaviour could be a very dangerous pattern for the future.

” We are deeply disappointed by this. In the ATP’s view, the invasion of Ukraine is not a serious enough situation, nor has it recognised the position of the sporting community and the British government.”

Wimbledon is hosted by the famous All England Tennis Club. The latter did not invite tennis players from Russia and Belarus and the ATP and WTA responded by not awarding any ranking points.

The All England Club was fined nearly $1 million by the ATP, which translates to approximately 23 million crowns.

Michelle Donelan, the British Culture Secretary, also commented on the penalties

Sources: ATP, LTA, Reuters