MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has not excluded any tennis players who have already qualified for the upcoming 2024 Olympic Games in Paris this summer, the ITF’s press office said in a statement to TASS on Monday.
The TennisUpToDate web portal reported earlier that female tennis players from Belarus Arina Sobolenko and Viktoriya Azarenko would not be participating in the Olympics in France because they had allegedly violated the rules of their neutral-status participation.
"No tennis players are currently excluded from Paris 2024," the ITF said in a statement to TASS.
The 2024 Summer Olympic Games will be hosted by the French capital of Paris between July 26 and August 11.
Russian players’ neutral status at tennis tournaments
On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.
Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) ruled on March 1, 2022 to suspend the membership of the Russian and Belarusian national tennis federations while also canceling all previously scheduled tennis tournaments in the two countries.
On March 14, 2022, the ITF also confirmed its prohibition of the Russian and Belarusian national tennis teams from the 2022 Davis Cup and 2022 Billie Jean King Cup.
However, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) allowed tennis players from Russia and Belarus to continue participating in WTA and ATP tournaments, but only under a neutral status.