Due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Moscow's players are now banned from playing at Wimbledon this year. The ban would prevent world number two Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, ranked eighth, from competing in the men’s draw. However, it is unclear if the players from Belarus are also banned or allowed to play as the country has an ally with Russia.
This development has come after the All England Law Tennis Club confirmed that it was in talks with the British government on the participation of players from Russia and Belarus.
British sports minister Nigel Huddleston said last month that he would not be comfortable with “Russian athletes flying the Russian flag” and winning Wimbledon in London.
Russia launched a war on Ukraine on February 24. However, according to the latest updates, Russia has given Mariupol a fresh ultimatum to surrender at 2 pm today. In a statement issued early on Wednesday morning, the Russian defence ministry said its forces opened a humanitarian corridor from the Azovstal plant “for the withdrawal of Ukrainian servicemen” to “voluntarily lay down their arms” as well as to evacuate civilians. A commander for the Ukrainian marines fighting in Mariupol said his forces were “may be facing our last days, if not hours” and appealed for extraction in a video message published to his Facebook account early on Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said the intensity of fire by Russian troops towards Kharkiv, the Donbas, and Dnipro has “increased significantly”, one day after the Kremlin launched its long-anticipated offensive in eastern Ukraine.