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Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Daniel Chavkin

Djokovic Calls Wimbledon’s Ban of Russian Players ‘Crazy’

On Wednesday, Wimbledon announced it has banned all Russian and Belarusian tennis players from competing in this year’s major competition amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It became the first tennis tournament to implement a ban of this kind in response to the invasion.

Men’s No. 2 Daniil Medvedev, No. 8 Andrey Rublev and women’s No. 4 Aryna Sabalenka are ineligible to participate due to the decision.

Novak Djokovic, the current men’s No. 1 in the world, believes the decision is a mistake. Djokovic, who was born in Serbia, was 11 years old when NATO bombed Yugoslavia in 1999.

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