The 2022 Wimbledon Championships are on the cusp of having their ranking points stripped in response to the tournament banning all Russian and Belarusian players.
That's after Steve Simon, chief executive for the WTA, informed a group of high-profile players that he was officially recommending the response during a conference call on Tuesday evening. It's highly likely the ATP would follow suit in that event as the governing bodies send a message to the All England Club.
It was confirmed in April that all that Russian and Belarusian players would be barred from competing at SW19 this year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The decision didn't go down well with other organisers, however, with the head of the WTA among those to raise resistance at the idea.
Simon told BBC Sport in March that players should not be punished on as a result of politics. All International Tennis Federation (ITF) events planned for Russia and Belarus have been shelved as a result of the former's invasion of Ukraine, but Simon said: “You never know what the future may bring.
"But I can tell you that we have never banned athletes from participating on our tour as the result of political positions their leadership may take. So it would take something very, very significant for that to change, but again we don’t know where this is going.”
Sportsmail reported the decision to rebel against the rest of the circuit by banning Russians and Belarusians could also hamper the LTA's plans to create a new Masters 1000 event. Queen's—which will not have its ranking points stripped —was believed to be the frontrunner to be upgraded from its ATP Tour 500 status to a higher-tier Masters 1000 event.
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The removal of ranking points lessens the appeal of playing at Wimbledon for those players who were hoping to make bounds on this year's Tour. There is of course still a major trophy and around £35million in prize money to be won, however.
Asked about the prospect of points being stripped from Wimbledon as he eyes a fourth straight crown at SW19, world No. 1 Novak Djokovic told reporters: “Now I guess it’s on player council, the tour management, to really decide along with the players what is the best solution in this situation, whether they keep the points, protect the points, take away 50 per cent of the points or whatever.”
Russia's Daniil Medvedev is the highest-profile player set to miss Wimbledon this year, though news of points being stripped may lessen the blow somewhat. SW19 is the only Grand Slam in which the U.S. Open titleholder has yet to reach the quarter-finals, a wait that will go on for at least one more year.
