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As several international sports federations continue to ban athletes from Russia and Belarus amid continued attacks on Ukraine, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has expressed its opposition to scrutinizing individuals for the decisions of their country.
Chief Executive Steve Simon told the BBC on Tuesday that the WTA does not intend to ban Russian and Belarusian players from competing on tour unless something "significant" were to happen.
"You never know what the future may bring," Simon said. "But I can tell you that we have never banned athletes from participating on our tour as the result of political positions their leadership may take."
Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova celebrates after defeating Belarus's Victoria Azarenka during the French Open in Paris on June 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
He continued: "So it would take something very, very significant for that to change, but again we don't know where this is going."
The WTA and ATP have already banned players from representing Russia and Belarus or flying their countries' flags, but the athletes have still been able to compete as individuals – even against Ukrainian athletes, some of which have spoken out against their presence on the courts.
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Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and Anastasia Potapova of Russia shake hands after their match during the GNP Seguros WTA Monterrey Open 2022 on March 1, 2022, in Mexico. (Gonzalo Gonzalez/Jam Media/Getty Images)
"I feel very, very strongly that, again, these individual athletes should not be the ones that are being penalized by the decisions of an authoritarian leadership that is obviously doing terrible, reprehensible things," Simon said of the global calls to ban those competitors.
"But if that happens, which is again part of the overall strategy of making Russia, and Russian citizens, pay the consequence for the decision their government has made, then it won't be something that we support."
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Simon added if government intervention were to prohibit Russian and Belarusian players from entering the country for tournaments, they would have to abide by the policy.
Anastasia Potapova of Russia celebrates a point during the AKRON WTA Zapopan Open 2022 on Feb. 23, 2022, in Mexico. (Cesar Gomez/Jam Media/Getty Images)
"We are hopeful that they will refrain from that because I think there are an awful lot of other issues that go with it," he said. "I don't think you can just pick on the athletes. What are you going to do with the [Russian] refugees that come in? Are you going to treat the refugees differently than the athletes?"
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