ATP might downgrade Wimbledon tournament if Russian player ban holds

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ex-khobar Andy
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ATP might downgrade Wimbledon tournament if Russian player ban holds

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

The Association of Tennis Professionals (the male players - women are represented by the WTA) are considering awarding no points for this year's Wimbledon. Points - 2000 to the winner; 1200 to the loser in the final; 720 if you make it to the semis and so on down the line - are used to determine who is No 1 in the world and all the rest of the rankings. WTA is very similar except that the numbers do not match exactly - for example the losing finalist on the women's side gets 1300 points.

ATP disagrees with Wimbledon's move to ban Russian players this year which would include two of the men's top 7 (Medvedev and Rublev). They don't control the tournament but do control how the points are used to determine rankings. If they go ahead with their threat, Wimbledon would be reduced to a £££££ heavy tournament with no effect on world rankings. It wouldn't surprise me if some of the world's top players boycotted it because they don't need the money and Djokovic in particular needs some Brownie points to make up for his conduct in Australia.

I don't know what I think. Of course I support anything which may help the Ukraine cause, and I support sports boycotts more for team events (World Cup, Olympics to some extent) than individual sports like tennis. I'm not sure that the Wimbledon ban is anything more than virtue signaling, but I am really not sure what I think here.

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MajGenl.Meade
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Re: ATP might downgrade Wimbledon tournament if Russian player ban holds

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

It's a Grand Slam event. I'd guess that most competitors want to win one of those, if just to get into record books. Good point about the points though.

What to think? Let the Russians play (tennis) - they almost all live in the real world anyway. Plus all those cute chicks . . . surely you can't ban them??
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

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Bicycle Bill
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Re: ATP might downgrade Wimbledon tournament if Russian player ban holds

Post by Bicycle Bill »

I don't see how any boycott or ban of an individual person, or even a group of individuals such as a sports team, can possibly affect actions in a war of aggression.  If something like that would work, then Putin would have already walked back his decision due to the sheer number of people who have posted a yellow/blue circle or flag on social media to show their support of Ukraine.  I suggest you check with the displaced residents of Mariupol — at least, those that have survived the assaults, rapes, slaughters, and other atrocities committed by the occupying forces — to see just how well that strategy has been working.

But I'm willing to listen to reason.  So if someone can give me a calm, cogent, and concise explanation as to how banning any personage of Russian nationality, especially de facto expatriates, from playing a sport is going make Mad Vlad decide to back down and withdraw his faltering troops from Ukraine ... well, I'm all ears.
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Big RR
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Re: ATP might downgrade Wimbledon tournament if Russian player ban holds

Post by Big RR »

I agree such a ban makes little sense; I always thought Carter ruined the Olympics for years boycotting the 1980 Olympics for the Russian invasion of Afghanistan (leading the Russians to boycott in 1984); hell, the Russians still came when we "invaded" Vietnam and some semblance of a Russian team came even after we invaded Afghanistan). I'd personally like to see the athletes have more of a say, and the politicians less, when it comes to international sports (though I doubt that will happen). FWIW, I think Jessie Owens beating the nazi ubermen made a much bigger statement than a boycott would have.

Meade--while I agree Wimbledon is a big stage, if the plan goes through many elite athletes may tend to avoid it to focus on competitions that will earn them points, making it less contested, and, generally, of less interest; the records would man a lot less (just as they did in the 1980 and 1984 olympics.

ex-khobar Andy
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Re: ATP might downgrade Wimbledon tournament if Russian player ban holds

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

In 1969-70 there was a major effort in Britain to cancel the proposed South African cricket tour. This was of course very much still the era of apartheid and the RSA team was all white. Blacks and Coloured (the official terms then used in apartheid's racial classification system) need not apply. There were demonstrations up and down the country - I took part in two or three of them - and the tour was eventually cancelled.

Sport has always been very central to the (white) South African ethos; and while there were certainly efforts in Britain to boycott RSA products - mainly fruit and wine - I don't doubt that world sports isolation played at least some role in the eventual collapse of apartheid. It didn't begin with the 1970 cricket tour - they were banned from the Olympics in 1964 - and Google will find you a few scholarly article which give the International sporting boycott much credit for bringing RSA back into the modern fold of nations.

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Re: ATP might downgrade Wimbledon tournament if Russian player ban holds

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

That you in the white muffler, Andy? [Liked your post]

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From the article:
Ultimately, it’s hard to know how much sports boycotts and related pressures contributed to ending apartheid in the 1990s. But Booth argues that the long-term campaigns to integrate sports played a significant role in changing South Africa’s culture, helping to pave the way for political equality.
https://daily.jstor.org/fighting-apartheid-with-sports/

If you have not discovered jstor, give it a whirl. Free membership, great scholarly articles. I go for the history. The link here is to their daily but the fully-leaded stuff is at https://www.jstor.org/
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

ex-khobar Andy
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Re: ATP might downgrade Wimbledon tournament if Russian player ban holds

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

Thanks, I'll give it a try. Didn't find myself in an author search so it's not that good. (Ducks to avoid abuse, rotten vegetables etc. being hurled in my general direction.)

Yes there has been plenty of debate about how much the various sports boycotts played in the eventual collapse of apartheid. My own uninformed guess is that it is less than some people think but definitely not zero. WAG 10% to 20%.

ex-khobar Andy
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Re: ATP might downgrade Wimbledon tournament if Russian player ban holds

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

The French Open is not banning Russian players. From the Guardian:
On Thursday morning, the French Open tournament director, Amélie Mauresmo, explained in a radio interview with France Inter why the event will continue to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete there next week.

“We have thought a lot, and I have the impression that there is no fair decision, one way or the other,” said Mauresmo. “We are in line with what European sports ministers have decided, we do not welcome teams but individual athletes. Obviously if an athlete speaks in the press for example and supports Vladimir Putin, there will be sanctions.”

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Long Run
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Re: ATP might downgrade Wimbledon tournament if Russian player ban holds

Post by Long Run »

Boycotts tend to not work very well against dictators but have more success with countries with some level of democracy.

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Long Run
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Re: ATP might downgrade Wimbledon tournament if Russian player ban holds

Post by Long Run »

ex-khobar Andy wrote:
Fri May 13, 2022 1:44 am
The French Open is not banning Russian players.
It is only a matter of time before they are being accused of having feet of clay. ;)

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