Andrey Rublev has proposed donating all his Wimbledon prize money to “humanitarian causes” as a compromise to allow him to play the grass-court Grand Slam.
“I would like to show that we are good people,” he said. The WTA and ATP will hold meetings in Madrid this week to formulate a response to the UK ban on Russian and Belarusian players following the invasion of Ukraine.
World No.8 Rublev joined the tennis tours in calling the bans “complete discrimination” last week. But after winning his third title of the year at the Serbian Open by beating Novak Djokovic, the Russian proposed a solution to show “we are good people”.
Rublev, who wrote “No War Please” on a TV camera after reaching the final in Dubai in February, said: “What Wimbledon has proposed, I hope they reflect on it and at least give us the chance to choose to play or not. If we had to sign a declaration to give all our prize money to humanitarian causes, it would be around €1m. In this way, they would take all the glory and respect.
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Emmanuel Macron’s victory in the French presidential election could now see him pressurise the French Open to do the same. The clay-court Grand Slam starts on May 22.
Djokovic has called the Wimbledon ban “crazy” and Rublev added: “Myself and tennis players have had a telephone call with Wimbledon to speak about the situation and try and find a solution. To be honest, the reasons that they gave for our exclusion have no sense and there is no logic in what they have proposed. I could have understood if excluding Russian and Belarusian players would have some impact but it will help nothing and change nothing.”
The All England Club will stage its annual spring conference to answer questions tomorrow.
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