All England Club chairman Ian Hewitt explains Wimbledon's banning of Russian, Belarusian players as 'beyond the interests of tennis alone'

The All England Club's (AELTC) chairman Ian Hewitt was left «very disappointed» by the ATP and WTA's decision to strip Wimbledon of ranking points but added the championships were left with «no other viable» alternative than banning players from Russia and Belarus from competing this year.

Hewitt also said the decision was also motivated by the desire to prevent the Championships from being to promote Russia's political agenda.

The organisers of Wimbledon made the decision, back in April, to ban players from Russia and Belarus in response to the invasion of Ukraine. The ATP and WTA responded to the AELTC's decision by stripping Wimbledon of any ranking points, saying the exclusion of players «undermined» the integrity of the tour.

But Hewitt, talking to ESPN on Sunday, said the call to ban players from Russia and Belarus was a decision that was «beyond the interests of tennis alone» and was «influenced by the directive guidance which the government gave us in relation to the matter».

Hewitt said it would have been «wrong» to «defy the government guidance» which left Wimbledon with two options: «One was a route to consider having personal declarations from players and, frankly, we did not think that was the right approach for a tournament of our kind, and we were not willing to put in jeopardy any safety of players and we think that that route would have involved implications for players' safety or safety of their families, which really left no other viable alternative,» Hewitt told ESPN.

«But also, it was very important to us that Wimbledon, given the profile that we have, should not be used in any way, by the propaganda machine which we know the Russian government employs in relation to its own people and how their