British number one Cameron Norrie has revealed his thoughts on ATP’s decision to strip Wimbledon of it’s ranking points as he believes that many of the top players will decide not compete at Wimbledon this year. 

On Saturday, it was announced by both the ATP and WTA that Wimbledon were to have their ranking points removed as a result of SW19’s ban on Russian and Belarusian players.

The announcement came after the ATP and WTA confirmed that all the UK grass-court and Wimbledon warm up events would proceed as normal and that there will be ranking points available.

The tennis’ governing bodies have received substantial support for their decision, with former US Open champion Sloane Stephens saying it “was the correct” decision as she also branded Wimbledon’s sanctions on the two European nations athletes as “discrimination.”

Now the world number 11 Cameron Norrie has expressed his opinion on the ATP and WTA’s response to the Wimbledon ban, believing that many of the top players will miss out on the Summer Slam due to it becoming more of an “exhibition” and so that they can focus on the hard-court season.

In a recent interview, the 26-year-old told reporters, “Obviously it’s an extremely difficult situation with everything going on with the war, but for me it’s tough.

“Having a home slam and not having to gain any ranking points from that and the tradition of it. You’re not really playing for anything, you’re playing this almost like an exhibition so for me it was tough to see that and obviously it’s a really tricky situation but I would have liked to see it still have points, still have something on the line.

“Wimbledon is still such a special event,” he said. “But I think you’ll see a lot of top players not playing, just resting and getting ready for the hard-court events. Making sure that they’re ready for those. Especially those that don’t worry too much about the money. So I could see a few top players not playing because of that.”

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