Russian and Belarusian players will be free to compete at this year’s US Open after an announcement by the United States Tennis Association left Wimbledon isolated as the only grand slam to ban athletes from the two countries.
The decision, announced on Tuesday, means reigning champion Daniil Medvedev will be able to defend his title when the season’s final major gets underway in New York at the end of August. The world No 1 remains barred from Wimbledon, however, after the All England Club bowed to pressure from the British government by imposing a blanket ban on Russian and Belarusian players in response to the Putin regime’s invasion of Ukraine.
Players from the two countries will be required to compete under a neutral flag in New York, a USTA statement confirmed.
“The USTA will allow individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete in the 2022 US Open, but only under a neutral flag,” said the statement.
“We recognise that each organisation has had to deal with unique circumstances that affect their decisions. Based on our own circumstances, the USTA will allow all eligible players, regardless of nationality, to compete.”
Wimbledon’s more uncompromising stance has created an uncomfortable standoff between the grass-court major and the governing bodies of the men’s and women’s tours, with the ATP and WTA stripping the tournament of ranking points in a move that has divided the sport.
The ATP has said that points awarded for last year’s tournament will drop off players’ rankings total, while the WTA has yet to announce a decision on what will happen to points earned last year.
Matteo Berrettini, the 10th-ranked Italian who reached the Wimbledon final last summer, is among those who have expressed frustration over the situation.
“I played well last year on grass,” said Berrettini, who won the Stuttgart title at the weekend. “It doesn’t matter how well I play this year, my ranking is going to drop, so I think the thing is not really fair. But I get that it’s a really complicated situation.
“I think that when the ranking is working normally, the more you play, the better you play, the better your ranking is going to be, and this thing is taken away. So that’s what I don’t agree with.”
Lew Sherr, the CEO and executive director of the USTA, said it emerged during the course of consultation with officials from the other three grand slams that each tournament faced different challenges. The situation was therefore assessed on its merits, Sherr explained, with the USTA board ultimately deciding against imposing a ban out of “concern about holding the individual athletes accountable for the actions and decisions of their governments”.
“Our discussion was really on the merits and really the principles around both sides of this argument,” Sherr told the Associated Press. “This was not a commercial versus an ethical question.
“There are arguments on both sides. Are you being perceived as supporting atrocious acts by a government? And at the same time: would you hold an individual athlete accountable for that?”
The USTA has pledged to contribute “significant financial assistance” to relief initiatives in Ukraine and will use the US Open as “a platform to further the humanitarian effort”.
“This is a horrific situation and we, along with everyone else in tennis, absolutely condemn what is an unprovoked and unjust invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and everything is framed in that context,” said Sherr.
While Medvedev will be able to defend his title at Flushing Meadows, Novak Djokovic will be unable to compete unless there is a change to the current US policy of denying entry to foreign travellers who are not vaccinated against Covid. Failure to meet US vaccine requirements prevented Djokovic from competing in Indian Wells and Miami earlier this year.