World number one Serbia’s Novak Djokovic said Wimbledon’s decision was a mistake because “when politics interferes with sport, the result is not good.” But that’s the wrong argument.Īthletes, like other celebrities, are in a powerful position to speak out on issues, and tennis players have been doing so for decades.Īrthur Ashe led the charge to boycott South Africa. Must they now be silenced? If so, we are doing Putin’s work for him. “I want peace in all the world, in all countries,” he said in a press conference before suffering a surprise loss in the third round to Frenchman Gael Monfils. He went on to win the title.ĭaniil Medvedev of Russia, currently the world’s second ranked player, also made a plea for peace prior to competing in a California tournament in March.
After advancing to the final of the Dubai Championships in February, just a day after the Russian invasion began, Russian tennis player Andrey Rublev wrote “No War Please” in felt pen on a TV camera lens. In fact, it serves to gag those who might be brave enough to oppose Russia’s invasion.
Barring a few tennis players from the elegant grass courts of England won’t change anything. Even extreme economic sanctions already in place seem not to have dissuaded him from his ruthless attacks on Ukrainian cities and their inhabitants. It’s been hailed as the correct decision by those who believe this action will in some way hurt Russian president, Vladimir Putin. It’s discriminating against individuals for crimes committed by an autocratic leader who jails those who speak out against him. They would do well to heed their lately fading superstar, British racer Lewis Hamilton, and cross Saudi Arabia off their calendar as well.īut Wimbledon’s decision to ban individual Russian and Belarusian tennis players from their lofty Championships this summer is not mixing politics and sport. In fact, they just automatically do, whether we like not or not.įormula 1 was right to pull their Grand Prix out of Sochi, Russia, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. When using a search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo check the safe search settings where you can exclude adult content sites from your search results Īsk your internet service provider if they offer additional filters īe responsible, know what your children are doing online.POLITICS and sport absolutely should mix. Use family filters of your operating systems and/or browsers Other steps you can take to protect your children are: More information about the RTA Label and compatible services can be found here. Parental tools that are compatible with the RTA label will block access to this site. We use the "Restricted To Adults" (RTA) website label to better enable parental filtering. Protect your children from adult content and block access to this site by using parental controls. PARENTS, PLEASE BE ADVISED: If you are a parent, it is your responsibility to keep any age-restricted content from being displayed to your children or wards. Furthermore, you represent and warrant that you will not allow any minor access to this site or services. This website should only be accessed if you are at least 18 years old or of legal age to view such material in your local jurisdiction, whichever is greater. You are about to enter a website that contains explicit material (pornography).