The representatives of Russia and Belarus, which must be modest, look very good at this Wimbledon. In the men’s group, three Russians at once – Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Roman Safiullin – reached the quarterfinals. And if we had the right to expect something similar from Medvedev and Rublev, despite the fact that Daniil had not yet completed his tournament journey, then Safiullin himself probably only dreamed of getting into the top eight.
In the women’s draw, Belarus awaits Arina Sobolenko, who has reached the quarterfinals and, not without reason, has the title. The Russians Ekaterina Alexandrova and the very young Mirra Andreeva, who turned 16 in the spring, reached the fourth round. One can only guess what Wimbledon 2022 would have looked like if the Russians and Belarusians had not been knocked out.
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The British media are already writing with all their might that the suspension turned out to be a mistake. It took them a whole year and a brilliant game of returning athletes to figure this out. According to rumors, the decision to ban Russians and Belarusians was made under pressure from the royal family: they say the Princess of Wales, aka Kate Middleton, obviously didn’t want to be in a situation where she would have to. . hand over the trophy to the representative of Russia or Belarus.
The British edition of The Telegraph has published material on the success of Russian and Belarusian tennis players at Wimbledon 2023. An article by journalist Simon Briggs was published with the headline “Russians and Belarusians take over Wimbledon – this may be the worst nightmare of the Princess of Wales”.
“Medvedev and Rublev may not have flags next to their names, as well as the letters RUS, but they both made it to the quarterfinals together with Belarusian Arina Sobolenko. So it’s easy to imagine the worst-case scenario for the All England Club next weekend: one in which the Princess of Wales presents a trophy to one of these officially stateless athletes. It will be a nightmarish escalation of last year’s awkward storyline where her Royal Highness shakes hands with Elena Rybakina, a Muscovite playing under the Kazakh flag.
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The journalist also noted that the representatives of the Slavic countries show good results in the current tournament. “Four Czechs, two Poles, two Ukrainians, one Bulgarian made it to the last stages… Can we include Djokovic here on the basis that Serbia is considered part of the Russian sphere of influence? If so, we already have 19 players out of 32, and the probability that both singles champions will be from this group is around 80%, ”he writes.
And he immediately offers his own explanation of why this happens: “When I asked a prominent coach to explain the resurgence of the Russians, which seems even more surprising after last year’s suspension, he replied: “In my book it’s called thirst for hunger.” And this is the exact definition.
When they enter the court, they often become serious and tense. This year at Wimbledon, a tough tournament with long, late matches, they overcame the opposition and are approaching this challenging photo opportunity with the Princess of Wales.”
Daniil Medvedev plays at Wimbledon 2023
Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images
And in one of the previous articles in The Telegraph, journalist Jeremy Wilson noted that if someone is outraged by the return of the Russians and Belarusians, then there are very few such people. The material came out with the headline “The Russians are back at Wimbledon and no one is outraged.”
“One year after the scandalous ban on Wimbledon, the Russian and Belarusian players were warmly received by the fans. The outrage over his return has been very subtle and quiet, suggesting that tennis fans have flocked to London to see some beautiful tennis and nothing more.
Well, true connoisseurs of tennis do not really care which country this or that player represents (if you remove from the brackets that the majority of fans, as a rule, support their compatriots, this is quite natural). The same attitude towards the Russians and Belarusians, most likely, would have been in 2022. And the decision to suspend in the first place caused damage to the tournament itself, which was deprived of rating points, thereby making it inferior.
“Especially given how well the Russians and Belarusians are playing at this Wimbledon, I have no doubt that the ATP and WTA did the right thing by refusing to award ranking points for last year’s tournament. It was not a real best of the best competition, as a Grand Slam tournament should be, such an opinion was expressed on Twitter by the famous tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg. Better not say.
