Naomi Osaka has revealed she is considering snubbing this year’s Wimbledon, after the event was stripped of its ranking points. The points stripping comes after Wimbledon bosses decided to ban all Russian and Belarusian players from competing.
The sanctions came in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin ’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine at the end of February. The London-based Slam event has been hit with sanctions of its own though, after the Players Council made the decision to scrap ranking points from the SW19 event in response to the banning.
With the famous grass court event now going ahead without ranking points, it is expected that a number of big names could well decide not to compete come the end of June.
One player in particular who has stated she is debating whether to make the trip to the capital is four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka. Speaking after her first-round defeat to Amanda Anisimova at the French Open she said: “I’m not 100 percent sure if I am going to go to Wimbledon.
“I would love to go to get some experience on the grass court… but I’m the type of player who gets motivated by seeing my ranking go up.” Osaka now fears that Wimbledon without ranking points will feel more like an ‘exhibition’ rather than one of the biggest tournaments on the tennis calendar..
She added: “I feel like if I play Wimbledon without points it’ll be more like an exhibition. I know this isn’t true, but my brain just feels like that way and whenever I think of something like an exhibition I just can’t go at it 100 percent.
“I didn’t even make my decision yet, but I’m leaning more towards not playing, given the current circumstances. That might change, but I do want to get more experience on the grass and I know that the Berlin tournament is giving out points.”
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Osaka’s ‘exhibition’ comments were also echoed by British No. 1 Cameron Norrie, as he expects a number of the sport’s biggest players to avoid the trip to SW19. He said: “Wimbledon is still such a special event, but I think you’ll see top players not playing, just resting and getting ready for the hardcourt events, especially those that don’t worry too much about the money.
“So I could see a lot of players, well maybe a few top players, not playing because of that. 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 gaining any ranking points from that. You’re not really playing for anything, you’re playing this almost like an exhibition.”
