Tennis Star Iga Swiatek Says Russian Gamers Ought to’ve Been Banned From Sport

Tennis officers dropped the ball once they did not ban Russian gamers after Putin‘s navy invaded Ukraine final yr, so says the world’s no 1 ranked participant, Iga Swiatek.

“I heard that after World War II, German players were not allowed as well as Japanese and Italian, and I feel like this kind of thing would show the Russian government that maybe it’s not worth it,” 21-year-old Swiatek informed the BBC.

Iga believes WTA and ATP officers displayed a “lack of leadership,” turning the tour right into a “chaotic place.”

“I feel like tennis, from the beginning, could do a bit better in showing everybody that tennis players are against the war.”

Now, Swiatek feels it is too late to impose a ban, saying … “now it would be pretty unfair for Russian and Belarusian players to do that because this decision was supposed to be made a year ago.”

FYI, in 2022, Wimbledon banned Russian and Belarusian gamers from enjoying on the earth’s prime tennis tourney. Nonetheless, the All England Membership lifted the ban forward of the 2023 match, clearing the best way for gamers like Aryna Sabalenka and Daria Kasatkina to compete.

Swiatek, a 3x majors winner, says she’s not essentially offended on the Russian tour gamers, and even has plenty of respect for a few of them.

“I did shake hands, for example, with Daria Kasatkina. She openly said that she’s against the war at the beginning and it would be her dream for the war to finish.”

Iga continued … “I really respect that because I feel it’s brave for Russian athletes to say that because their situation is pretty complicated and sometimes it’s hard for them to speak out loud about it.”