Andy Murray doesn’t expect lack of ranking points to weaken Wimbledon field

Andy Murray expects there to be an “extremely strong field” at Wimbledon this summer but reiterated his belief the decision to take away rankings points was a not a great move.

The three-time grand slam winner was speaking after beginning his grass-court campaign with an impressive 6-2 6-1 victory over Jurij Rodionov in the first round of the Surbiton Trophy on Monday.

It was announced earlier this month by the ATP and WTA that no ranking points would be on offer at Wimbledon after the All England Club announced it would not allow Russian and Belarusian players to enter the Championships due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

A number of players have criticised the decision, while former world number one Naomi Osaka suggested she could skip the third grand slam of the year.

Murray believes a different approach could have been adopted.

“My belief is Wimbledon will go ahead and have an extremely strong player field,” the 35-year-old said.

“Removing the points, if it doesn’t stop players from playing then I don’t think it’s a great move from the ATP because they’ve taken the points away and everyone’s still showing up. I don’t think it’s a great move from that perspective.

“A lot of the players are frustrated and didn’t want that to happen. I think most and the majority of the players – certainly the ones that I’ve spoken to – felt like there should have been some response from the ATP.

“My feeling is that it would have been better to make a move or negotiate something that’s going to be beneficial for the future of the tour. I don’t know, something that would involve having a seat at the table in future grand-slam discussions over rules or prize-money distribution, those sorts of things, which recently that hasn’t been the