LONDON, June 27. /TASS/. The draw for this year’s Wimbledon tennis tournament has been announced, with 12 women and four men on the Russian side among the field learning their first-round matchups on Friday.
In women’s singles, Russia’s opponents look like this: Polina Kudermetova against Iga Swiatek from Poland; Mirra Andreeva against Mayar Sherif from Egypt; Diana Shnaider against Moyuka Uchijima from Japan; Lyudmila Samsonova against Maya Joint from Australia; Yekaterina Alexandrova against Priscilla Hon from Australia; Anna Kalinskaya against Nina Stojanovic from Serbia; Anastasia Potapova against Magdalena Frech from Poland; Veronika Kudermetova against Liu Zhu from China; Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova against Ajla Tomljanovic from Australia; Anna Blinkova against Maria Sakkari from Greece; Kamilla Rakhimova against Aoi Ito from Japan and Anastasia Zakharova against Viktoria Azarenko from Belarus.
On the men’s side, Russia’s matchups are as follows: Daniil Medvedev against Benjamin Bonzi from France; Andrey Rublev against Laslo Djere from Serbia; Karen Khachanov against Macknezie McDonald from the United States and Roman Safiullin against Luciano Darderi from Italy.
The Wimbledon tournament, the most prestigious out of the four Grand Slam tournaments, has been held annually in London since 1877 and it is played on grass courts.
This year’s Wimbledon will take place between June 30 and July 13 and offers a total of 50 million Euro [some $57.4 million] in prize money. Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic are the reigning Wimbledon champions in men’s and women’s singles, respectively.
Athletes representing Russia and Belarus are playing under a neutral status at international tennis tournaments.
Earlier this month, President of the Russian Tennis Federation (RTF) Shamil Tarpishchev told TASS, that Russian tennis players would have slim prospects in singles competitions to achieve success at one of the most prestigious Grand Slam tournaments.
"We may expect something [in women’s doubles competitions] regarding the duo of Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider, but few stand a chance for the success on the grass court, particularly at the Wimbledon," Russia’s tennis chief Tarpishchev told TASS.
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 on the Russian and Belarusian national tennis teams from taking part in the 2022 Davis Cup and 2022 Billie Jean King Cup.