Daniil Medvedev has expressed his desire to play at Wimbledon this summer as Russian players wait to see if the club will ban them for the second year in a row. The All England Club has banned all Russian and Belarusian players from competing in 2022 amid the war in Ukraine, and they are expected to announce a decision on this year’s tournament during their annual spring press conference. It comes as the ATP and the WTA tours have threatened the ATP to lift their ban on warm-up events including Queen’s and Eastbourne.
The tennis world is waiting to know if Wimbledon will prevent the Russians and Belarusians from participating in this year’s tournament after the club took a stand against the Ukraine war last year and prevented it from participating in the tournament. The AELTC has yet to make a decision on this year’s event, but former number one Medvedev has had his say, revealing he hopes to play Wimbledon this summer.
The 27-year-old was discussing Novak Djokovic’s recent dominance at Wimbledon – winning seven titles including the last four editions of the tournament in a row – when he admitted he wanted to return to SW19 this year and compete. “I like grass but it’s a very hard surface, it’s a little bit harder than hard courts and that’s where I think Novak is amazing winning so many grass court tournaments,” he told Eurosport on Thursday.
“Because you can really get a guy to serve well today and you have to win at halftime. Novak has won so many times 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, I actually don’t know how he does it.” Medvedev himself had some success on grass last year, reaching back-to-back finals in Hertogenbosch and Halle, but he wasn’t able to follow it up at Wimbledon.
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He continued, “This is where the grass is a little bit difficult for me, for example, I lost [Tim] Van Reythofen in [s-Hertogenbosch] The final last year and before the final, I was feeling great, playing great, and he was having a good day, hitting bombs, after the game, I was like, ‘Okay, one hour, he’s hitting winners all over and I’m lost.'”
And the world No. 8 wanted another chance to prove himself on turf again this summer, this time in the main event. “That on hard courts is somewhat less likely to happen. But I want to play on grass, I want to play Wimbledon.”
With the All England club yet to make a public decision, Medvedev was keeping his cool while he awaited news about another possible ban. He added, “I don’t know what their decision will be. I will wait for that and hope to play Wimbledon this year and achieve some great results.”
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Medvedev’s comments come as the ATP and WTA threaten sanctions if Britain’s tennis governing body does not allow Russian and Belarusian players to compete in pre-Wimbledon tour events, including the prestigious ATP 500 tournament in Queen’s. The league has been threatened with expulsion if it repeats the ban this year, meaning tours could revoke licenses for the tournament and put it up for sale on the open market to tennis bodies overseas.
The WTA has also tried to spur the association on its women’s events in Nottingham, Birmingham and Eastbourne by promising retroactively half the £830,000 ($1 million) fine the association had already paid as punishment for last year’s ban if it allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes. to compete in 2023.
