Russian No 1 Andrey Rublev has shared the proposals he gave to Wimbledon after players from the country were banned in the wake of the war in Ukraine. The 24-year-old spoke out against the war back in February but admitted that the only way to play at SW19 would have been to change citizenship – something he is now considering if Russians are banned from all events.
Rublev was one of the first Russian players to speak publicly about the invasion of Ukraine, writing “no war please” on the camera at the Dubai Championships, an ATP 500 tournament he ended up winning. But the Moscow-born star still found himself banned from Wimbledon earlier this month alongside all other players representing Russia and Belarus.
Appearing in a YouTube video with Russian blogger Vitya Kravchenko, the world No 8 has now confessed that he proposed several solutions to the tournament, though revealed nothing would have allowed him to play unless he changed his citizenship – something Russian-born Kazakh Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina did four years ago, allowing her to play and win the grass-court Grand Slam this month.
“Of course I was frustrated. Everything I earn, I invent in my career, and then I’m forbidden from doing my work. It is upsetting for sure, if we speak about tennis,” he said of the ban, while admitting he didn’t want to watch Wimbledon on TV. “We offered some solutions that could be really helpful diplomatically. Playing in mixed doubles with a Ukrainian player, not coming for the medals.
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“We wanted to use the platform of a championship to show that we don’t fight here, that there’s no war in tennis. It’s most important now. As a tennis player, I could deliver the right message from the court.” Having publicly called for no war in the past, the 11-time title winner was asked whether that helped his cause to be allowed to compete.
“I kept getting the same answer,” he explained. “[The] Russian government is going to use our results for propaganda. So, whatever I’d say, the reply was and is the same. I couldn’t understand why would they say so.”
Russian and Belarusian players have been competing as neutrals for several months now, while Wimbledon remains the first and only big tournament to have banned them altogether. And Rublev added: “Well, speaking of Wimbledon, I probably should have changed my citizenship to get there. That would be acceptable for them.”
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He was then asked whether changing his citizenship altogether was something he was considering, and the Russian replied: “If we’d get completely banned from all tournaments, and I wanted to keep my career going, it could be one of the ways.”
Rublev has Austrian ancestry, through his grandmother on his father’s side, and has previously credited his paternal grandparents for raising him as a child for the majority of the time until he turned 15. As a tennis pro and former top five player, he would likely be offered citizenship to most countries who want a highly-ranked player to represent them – similar to Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.
The 23-year-old formerly represented her home country of Russia but switched allegiance to Kazakhstan four years ago in events unrelated to the war, as the country wanted her to join their tennis federation and invested heavily into helping her career progress. Rublev won Olympic gold for Russia in the mixed doubles last year and still hopes to represent his country at the event in the future. ” I still hope to play there again in the future. I really wish I could. And yes, I’m insanely happy to have played and won the Olympic gold. When it happened, I felt on top of the world,” he said.
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