World Number Two Daniil Medvedev Will Miss Wimbledon As Russian Players Set To Be Banned
Wimbledon are set to be the first tennis tournament to ban Russian and Belarusian players from competing, meaning Daniil Medvedev won't be at SW19.
Russian and Belarusian athletes have been able to continue taking part on both the ATP and WTA tours since the invasion of Ukraine in February.
The French Open, the second grand slam of the year, is still letting players put their names on the entry list, however it looks like it won't be the case for Wimbledon.
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The third slam of the year is set to ban players competing from those nations, according to the Times, which will see US Open champion Medvedev, and former women's world number one player Victoria Azarenka, miss out.
Sources have told the newspaper that a decision has been made after a couple of months of discussions between the All England Club and the UK government.
Not only will the players miss out on Wimbledon, they will also likely miss out on the rest of the grass court season in UK as well, meaning tournaments such as Queen's and Eastbourne.
The LTA haven't made any official announcements on what they will be doing yet but had suggested they would follow what Wimbledon did.
It will be a blow especially to Medvedev who had taken the world number one spot from Novak Djokovic in February, ending the Serbian's 361 week run at the top.
The Russian then lost in the third round of Indian Wells and Djokovic became number one again, just three weeks after losing his place.
Djokovic famously missed the first slam of the year in Australia, due to his decision not to get vaccinated from the Covid-19 virus.
His absence opened the way for rival Rafael Nadal to become the first man to win 21 grand slam titles, going ahead of both the Serbian and Roger Federer on the all time list.
Djokovic will be able to compete in south London in the summer however, and also at the French Open, and he will be hoping to level things up, or even go ahead.
Last year the 34-year-old won the Australian and French Opens, before winning his sixth Wimbledon title, only to fall to Medvedev in the final of the US Open and fail to win the Calendar Grand Slam.
Ryan Sidle