Tennis tours strip ranking points at Wimbledon over decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players

By Jill Martin, CNN

Updated 2329 GMT (0729 HKT) May 20, 2022

Wimbledon organizers are standing by the decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players despite the WTA, ATP and ITF removing ranking points for the event.

(CNN)Wimbledon, the third of the four majors on the tennis calendar, is arguably the most famous tennis tournament in the world.

This year, however, the men's and women's professional tours, along with the International Tennis Federation (ITF), have opted to strip its ranking points for the grand slam event.The announcements to remove the ranking points, which were made separately Friday by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the ITF, come following the decision from the tournament's organizers to ban Russians and Belarusians from playing in this year's event.«The stance we are taking is about protecting the equal opportunities that WTA players should have to compete as individuals,» a statement from WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon said. «If we do not take this stance, then we abandon our fundamental principle and allow the WTA to become an example to support discrimination based on nationality at other events and in other regions around the world. The WTA will continue to apply its rules to reject such discrimination.»«Discrimination by individual tournaments is simply not viable on a Tour that operates in more than 30 countries,» an ATP statement said.Read More«We greatly value our long-standing relationships with Wimbledon and the LTA and do not underestimate the difficult decisions faced in responding to recent UK Government guidance. However, we note that this was informal guidance, not a mandate, which offered an alternative option that would have left