Wimbledon ban on Russian players is discrimination

Russian world number eight Andrey Rublev said that the ban on Russian and Belarusian players at Wimbledon is complete discrimination.

Three top 10 players, including Rublev, cannot play at SW19 this summer.

Wimbledon banned Russian and Belarusian players because of the invasion of Ukraine.

Rublev said the reasons they gave us had no sense.

What is happening now is complete discrimination against us.

Rublev spoke to the news agency after he won against Jiri Lehecka at the Belgrade Open.

Rublev appealed for peace when he signed a camera lens with a "no war please" message at a tennis tournament.

On Wednesday, world number one Novak Djokovic said he did not support the All England Lawn Tennis Club's decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players.

Excluding Russian and Belarusian players was not the way to go according to the record nine Wimbledon singles titles won by Martina Navratilova.

Wimbledon runs from June 27 to July 10 and is one of the sport's four Grand Slam events.

In the Belgrade quarter-finals, the six-time Wimbledon champion fought back from a set and break down to beat his Serbian opponent.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion, who came back from a similar deficit against Laslo Djere on Wednesday, won 3-6.