Member of UK Parliament Chris Bryant has accused male players of “behaving appalingly” and has told Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to come clean with their involvement in Wimbledon potentially losing ranking status.
Last month, Wimbledon announced player bans for Russian and Belarusian players. Some of the biggest names of the game have made it clear they do not support the Wimbledon decision and some are reportedly pushing for the ATP to strip Wimbledon of its ranking status.
If the ATP decides to act on the advice from its players, there likely won’t be any points awarded at this year’s Wimbledon. When Nadal was asked in Rome about his position regarding Wimbleodn potentially losing ranking status, he refused to give a direct answer.
“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,” Nadal said in Rome.
Bryant: Do Federer, Nadal want to see Vladimir Putin fail, or…?
“Federer and Nadal should come clean. Do they want Vladimir Putin to fail or don’t they care?” Bryant told The Telegraph.. “The men’s tour are behaving appallingly.
It’s like they haven’t heard what is happening in Ukraine or don’t care”. When Nadal was asked to give his thoughts on the Wimbledon decision, he described it as a “very unfair decision.”
“I think it’s very unfair to my Russian tennis mates, my colleagues. In that sense it’s not their fault what’s happening in this moment with the war,” Nadal said in Madrid. “Let’s see what happens in the next weeks, if the players will take some kind of decision …
there’s one thing that’s negative, there are things that are clear. When the government imposes some restrictions, you just have to follow them.”
