MY ACCOUNT
Denis Shapovalov has attacked Wimbledon and the ATP for the decisions that have led to fears of players skipping the grass-court Grand Slam.
Canadian left-hander Shapovalov enjoyed a run to the semi-finals at the All England Club last year, eventually losing to Novak Djokovic, but he will lose all his points and be unable to defend them at the 2022 tournament.
The season’s third Major will not have any ranking points after the ATP and WTA, which run the men’s and women’s tours, respectively, effectively decided to punish the Grand Slam’s organisers for banning Russian and Belarusian players.
Naomi Osaka has said she is unsure about playing in London on that basis, as she wants to play events where there are points available following a slide on the WTA list, and there are concerns others may also give it a miss. A number of players have voiced concern that prize money could be slashed too.
Shapovalov, who addressed the matter after a shock first-round loss to Denmark’s Holger Rune at the French Open on Tuesday, said he did not agree with the banning of players or the subsequent points decision.
“I completely understand the politics and the situation they’re in. But if you have a tennis tournament that’s supposed to have the best athletes in the world, it shouldn’t matter where you’re from,” Shapovalov said.
“I also don’t agree with the ATP to take out all the points. The most guys it’s affecting are the guys in the top rankings.”
Referring to last year’s semi-finalists in the men’s singles, Shapovalov, who beat Andy Murray on the way to the last four, said: “Obviously Novak [Djokovic], me, Hubi [Hubert Hurkacz], [Matteo] Berrettini, who is not playing here, we’re going to drop a lot.
“I think they could have gone with it a different way, maybe keep 50 per cent like they have in the past or some kind of fairness.”
Karolina Pliskova lost to Ash Barty in the women’s final at Wimbledon last year, and the Czech described the WTA’s move to strip points from Wimbledon as a “super tough and unfair and bad decision”.
She will play Wimbledon, which starts on June 27, because she feels it is a tournament she can win, and at the age of 30 she is determined to take every opportunity going to land a maiden grand slam. She could become champion this year but, because last year’s Wimbledon ranking points will fall off, plunge down the rankings at the same time.
Intriguingly, Pliskova said leading WTA stars could not agree what action tour chiefs should take about points.
“We had a group of WhatsApp chat [between] top 10 players and these 10 girls could not agree on the same thing,” Pliskova said. “Some girls were for no points, some were for 50 per cent, to keep just 50 per cent from last year, some were for like all the points. So it is what it is.”
Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, who won the French Open in 2017 and reached the Wimbledon semi-finals a year later, suspects there could yet be a twist in the saga to come.
Ostapenko said: “There are of course a lot of rumours and talks, but I think maybe they are going to change their mind. I’m not sure about points. But I think a lot of things may happen within the next week or two weeks.
“That’s my personal opinion. Maybe I’m wrong. If there are no points, I’m not really sure what I’m going to do.
“I feel like it’s a little bit unfair to play the tournament when there are no points and you can win the tournament and then you don’t move one spot up in the ranking.”
