Rafa Nadal says that he wants to 'protect every single player' amid escalating Wimbledon row over Russian ban

Rafa Nadal refused to be drawn on whether he would support a boycott of Wimbledon or the tournament being stripped of its ranking points as a row over its decision to ban Russian and Belarussian players intensifies. Wimbledon — having considered the options surrounding their position over the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war — announced their decision last month, and it provoked a backlash among many on the tennis circuit, including from male world No.1 Novak Djokovic and Britain's Andy Murray.

Ad/> Now it seems things have gone a step further with some of the world's top players said to be pushing for the grass-court major to experience the aforementioned, unprecedented repercussions over their move. ATP RomeNadal breezes past Isner to set up 'dangerous' Shapovalov rematch5 HOURS AGO When asked if the measures had been taken into consideration, Nadal — a member of the ATP Players Council — said: «No and I don't have a clear opinion on that, so I prefer to not give you a clear answer.

And that's it. »There are some private conversations on the council about this kind of stuff, something that honestly I think it's not good to [make] public.

«The only thing that we can do is to be in touch with Wimbledon and with the rest of the ATP management to do the things that work better to protect every single player in the ATP. »At the end that's our job, to protect the players and to work in the benefit of every single player that we are representing.

That's all. The rest of the things I am not able to talk about." Raducanu vows to return only when her back is 'fully right' Edmund will not return for Wimbledon, targeting US Open 'Like playing in the Colosseum' — Tsitsipas saves two match points before overcoming Dimitrov Nadal was also