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Emma Raducanu Wimbledon 2021

UK grass-court events to keep WTA ranking points


WTA have announced that ranking points will not be stripped for next month’s UK grass-court events.

Last month Wimbledon announced that Russian and Belarusian players were to be banned from this year’s tournament due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The ban means that the four Russian men in the top 30 in the ATP rankings and six Russian and Belarusian players in the top 32 of the WTA rankings, who would have been seeds at Wimbledon, are unable to compete.

The ban has been widely condemned by many key stakeholders in tennis including current players, coaches and even tennis’ governing bodies.

Both the ATP and WTA have expressed their disappointment in Wimbledon’s decision, with both governing bodies meeting in Madrid earlier this month to discuss their response to SW19’s sanctions, with the possibility of Wimbledon and other UK grass-court tournaments being stripped of ranking points and becoming an ‘exhibition event’. 

Players have called on the governing bodies to make a decision ahead of the Summer Slam, with WTA player council member Victoria Azarenka calling for “a reaction” from the WTA to contest the ban.

On Tuesday the ATP announced that the UK summer tournaments at Queen’s and Eastbourne will not be stripped of ATP ranking points and now the WTA has followed suit, declaring that ranking points will be awarded for next month’s UK grass-court events.

The decision means the grass-court events in Nottingham, Birmingham and Eastbourne will all have ranking points up for grabs, however Wimbledon could still be stripped of points in response to the All England Club and the LTA’s ban on Russian and Belarusian players following the invasion of Ukraine.

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