Novak Djokovic has doubled down on remarks he made regarding Wimbledon’s ban on Russian players amid reaching his first final this year at the Serbian Open.
The 34-year-old initially said that the decision, made this week by the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) as a response to Russia’s military operation in Ukraine despite Russian players being allowed to play under neutral status, was “crazy”.
On Saturday afternoon, the outspoken figure then stood by his comments in support of the likes of world number one ranking rival Daniil Medvedev and world number eight Andrey Rublev.
“I stand by what I said, there is no need for athletes to be banned,” Djokovic insisted.
“We have rules against discrimination in tennis. We play based on rankings, not nationality.”
“I support the statements of ATP and PTPA,” Djokovic concluded.
The statements Djokovic referred to saw the ATP men’s tour accuse the AELTC of discrimination and the PTPA also tweet that it does not “discriminate against any tennis player based on nationality”.
In his original comments, Djokovic said that he “cannot support the decision of Wimbledon” which he thought was “crazy”.
“When politics interferes with sport, the result is not good,” he went on, noting that he “will always condemn war” and “will never support” it due to being “a child of war” himself.