Russian and Belarusian tennis players will become “hostages” to political forces if they are banned from Wimbledon this summer, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
Reports have claimed that tennis bosses at the grass court Grand Slam in London are set to announce a ban on players such as men’s world number two Daniil Medvedev because of the conflict in Ukraine.
That comes despite tennis authorities the ITF, ATP and WTA clearing stars from Russia and Belarus to continue to compete as neutrals at tour events.
Responding to the reports of a Wimbledon ban – which are as yet unconfirmed – Kremlin spokesman Peskov said it would be an entirely “unacceptable” step from the UK.
“Given that Russia is a strong tennis country… the competitions themselves will suffer from their removal,” said Peskov, according to R-Sport.
“And once again making athletes hostages of some kind of political prejudices, political intrigues and hostile actions towards our country – this is unacceptable,” Peskov added scathingly.