Novak Djokovic backs ATP, laments Wimbledon ‘lose-lose situation’

Novak Djokovic intends to defend his title at Wimbledon and helps the choice by the ATP males’s tour to withhold rating factors from that match as a present of unity amongst gamers — despite the fact that the transfer will negatively have an effect on his maintain on the No. 1 spot.

In response to a reporter’s query after his first-round victory on the French Open on Monday evening, Djokovic known as the All England Club’s ban of gamers from Russia and Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine “a mistake” and criticized Wimbledon organizers for his or her lack of communication.

Novak Djokovic (FILE)

“They haven’t discussed it with anybody from ATP or any individual players — or, for that matter, Russian or Belarusian players — to just communicate and understand whether there is a common ground where both sides could be making a compromise and something could work out,” Djokovic mentioned in regards to the All England Club. “So I think it was a wrong decision. I don’t support that at all.”

He known as it a “lose-lose situation for everyone.”

Russia, with assist from Belarus, started attacking Ukraine in late February. The All England Club mentioned final month it could not enable gamers from Russia or Belarus to compete when its Grand Slam match begins on June 27; the ATP and the WTA girls’s tour responded by asserting Friday they’d not award rating factors to any gamers for outcomes at Wimbledon.

Djokovic mentioned he heard there might need been different choices accessible to All England Club decision-makers than has been revealed, equivalent to the potential of exhibition matches to lift cash to assist Ukrainians in want.

Djokovic has had his run-ins with ATP administration prior to now, and even labored to create a separate gamers’ affiliation, however on this matter he mentioned he backs the tour.

“Collectively, I’m glad that players got together with the ATP, the governing body of men’s tennis, and showed to the Grand Slam that when there is a mistake happening — and there was, from the Wimbledon side — then we have to show that there’s going to be some consequences,” Djokovic mentioned.

The ATP says that each one gamers who earned rating factors at Wimbledon in 2021 (Djokovic earned the utmost 2,000 for taking the championship) could have these erased from their report as a part of the standard 52-week system that counts somebody’s greatest 19 tournaments over that span.

Whatever occurs on the match in 2022 could have no bearing on a participant’s standing.

“For me, or for the guys that did well last year, we are not only not going to have a chance to earn points, but we can’t defend them,” Djokovic mentioned. “And there are some guys, obviously, who are not going to have a chance to earn points, of course. It’s a very unique and weird situation, I must say.”

Earlier within the day, four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka mentioned she was leaning towards skipping Wimbledon with no factors on provide.

But Djokovic’s view was completely different.

“A Grand Slam is still a Grand Slam,” mentioned the proprietor of 20 such titles, one shy of Rafael Nadal’s males’s report. “Wimbledon, for me, was always my dream tournament when I was a child. So I don’t look at it through the lens of points or of prize money. For me, it’s something else.”