Ukraine's Elina Monfils says anti-war Russians and Belarusians should be allowed to play at Wimbledon

Ukraine's Elina Monfils says Russian and Belarusian tennis players who denounce Moscow's invasion of her country should be allowed to play at Wimbledon. 

The grasscourt major announced on Wednesday that Russian and Belarusian competitors would be banned from this year's tournament.

The decision means that the likes of men's world number 2 Daniil Medvedev of Russia and women's fourth-ranked Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus are ruled out of the June 27-July 10 tournament.

World number 25 Monfils — formerly Svitolina — joined fellow Ukrainian players on Wednesday in seeking a ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competitions but appeared to soften her stance in an interview with the BBC on Thursday.

«We don't want them banned completely,» Monfils said. «If players don't speak out against the Russian government then it is the right thing to ban them.

»We just want them to speak up, if they are with us and the rest of the world or the Russian government. This is for me the main point.

«If they didn't choose, didn't vote for this government, then it's fair they should be allowed to play and compete.»

In 2013, Sergiy Stakhovsky brought down Roger Federer in front of a packed Wimbledon crowd. Now the Ukrainian has taken up arms in the war with Russia.

The governing bodies of men's and women's tennis criticised Wimbledon for its decision, while WTA founder Billie Jean King said the grand slam's decision was a «complex undertaking» amid the challenges and pressures they were facing.

«One of the guiding principles of the founding of the WTA was that any girl in the world, if she was good enough, would have a place to compete,» King said.

«I stood by that in 1973 and I stand by that today. I cannot support the banning of