Players will not earn points for the ATP and WTA rankings there but will continue to come here to seek prestige and money: Naomi Osaka is the only declared big name to consider not participating in Wimbledon in June.
The WTA like the ATP, which manage the women’s and men’s circuits, will not distribute points during the London Major: a measure of retaliation for the decision of the All England Club to exclude Russians and Belarusians because of the invasion of the Ukraine, a decision which, according to the two organizations, constitutes a breach of fairness between players.
As often, Osaka, without speaking loudly, made noise. “I haven’t even made my decision yet, but I’m leaning more towards not playing” Wimbledon, released the Japanese on Monday, who in any case had no great ambitions on the London lawn where she never reached the knockout stages.
Would the All England Club tournament have become “ pointless “- both useless and without point -, as put forward, “without bad pun”, Osaka, who has already marked the spirits by his non-conformity when she had decided before the 2021 edition of Roland-Garros to skip press conferences to preserve your sanity?
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The general opinion of the players participating in Roland-Garros, tirelessly questioned at a press conference on the quarrel between, on the one hand, the organizers of the London Grand Slam, and on the other, the ATP and the WTA, joins that of the world No.1 Novak Djokovic.
“Grand Slam tournaments remain Grand Slam tournaments,” he summarizes, “and Wimbledon was always a dream for me when I was a child. I do not see it through the prism of points or “prize money”. »
Same feeling with the Polish leader of the WTA ranking, Iga Swiatek: “At the Olympic Games, we play for medals (and not points, editor’s note) and that remains very important. Whoever wins Wimbledon will always have that on their Wikipedia page. »
The little names on the circuit need the bonuses distributed in London: “For me, the question does not arise. I will be there, ”sums up the French Grégoire Barrère, beyond the 200th place in the world and qualified for the second round of Roland-Garros.
“From a financial point of view, even if this week is going to be good, we players who go through the “qualifiers”, we have to go there”, he describes. “It is not with the 400 euros in the first round of the Challengers that we pay for our season. »
As often, the French Benoît Paire summed up without mincing his words: “I’m going to go there to take my check anyway, to go and play an exhibition. »
However, he does not understand the choice of the ATP: “Most players do not understand this decision. And when I talk about it in the dressing room with 99% of the players, they want points and play a normal tournament. »
There are also those, at the top of the rankings, unhappy with the non-extension of the points of the 2021 edition which will expire 52 weeks after the end of the tournament.
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“This year I will lose a total of 4,000 points from the Australian Open (for lack of vaccination against COVID-19, editor’s note) and from Wimbledon, because I will not have been authorized to defend them”, regrets Djokovic, who was the outgoing winner of both Grand Slams. “Obviously it affects me very negatively. »
“It’s extra pressure,” even complained the Canadian Denis Shapovalov, ejected in the first round of Roland-Garros on Tuesday.
“I knew I was going to lose points and that I couldn’t defend them”, delivered the semi-finalist of the last edition of Wimbledon. “So I knew before in this tournament (Roland-Garros, Ed) that it was very important for me to go as far as possible here. »
Fifteenth player in the world, Shapovalov is about to dive in the rankings in the coming weeks. He would have liked the ATP to do “differently”, “perhaps keep 50% like last year”, due to COVID-19.
“The season on grass is already so short, players who perform well on this surface don’t have many opportunities to score points,” he said. “There, they lose a huge part of it, it’s super difficult. »