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Aryna Sabalenka revealed she initially blamed herself for the Wimbledon situation but then realized that she personally "did nothing bad against the Ukrainian people." Last year, Wimbledon took a strong stance against Russian and Belarusian athletes, banning them from The Championships.
Ahead of her Indian Wells campaign, Sabalenka was asked if she had any thoughts on the participation of Russian and Belarusian players at 2023 Wimbledon. "The reaction of people, some different things made me feel really bad - that this is my fault.
But then I realised that this is not under my control. I did nothing, nothing bad against Ukrainian people. This is just not my fault," Sabalenka said, per Eurosport.
Sabalenka, Daniil Medvedev on the Wimbledon situation
Medvedev also shared his thoughts on the Wimbledon situation, underlining that he is not the one who is making the decision.
However, Medvedev also added that he will respect whatever the Wimbledon organizers decide to do. "I'm not going to make this decision for them or even help them make this decision. They have to make it by themselves for their different reasons like they did last year.
And I always said I will respect this decision. I play where I can play, tennis is my job so I would be really happy to play Wimbledon. I absolutely love that tournament, but if it's not meant to be, I'm going to wait for the opportunity to be back there," Medvedev said.
Last year, some of the biggest names in the men's and women's game missed Wimbledon because of the ban. In the men's event, some of the names that weren't participating were Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov. In the women's event, Sabalenka, Daria Kasatkina and Victoria Azarenka were not allowed to participate.
Sabalenka became a Grand Slam champion at the start of the 2023 season in Australia. Sabalenka is off to a great start to 2023 and not having her at Wimbledon would be a blow.