Wimbledon visa chaos as Russian and Belarusian stars wrestle to safe UK entry

After enormous fines, the All England Club determined to allow players from the two nations to compete at The Championships so long as they compete as impartial athletes and never make “supportive comments” concerning the battle or both of the 2 regimes. Nineteen

Russian and Belarusian gamers have signed declarations and can enter the principle draw. But world No.2 Sabalenka revealed final month that her visa had yet to be approved.

And 16-year-old Russian Andreeva, who reached the third spherical on her Grand Slam debut in Paris, admitted she is just not but positive if she will likely be allowed into the UK to play the Wimbledon.

UK Visit Visas are taking a minimum of six weeks to course of whereas the Home Office is endeavor further safety checks on Russians and Belarusians. Even the same old five-day turnaround for precedence processing is taking longer for gamers from the 2 international locations.

Andreeva, who is about to enter the highest 100 however too late to realize computerized entry into Wimbledon, stated: “I’m still limited in tournaments, so my next tournament has to be Wimbledon. But I don’t get my visa yet, so we will see if I can participate in Wimbledon or not. But if not, we will just choose the tournaments and I will just maybe play some ITFs. I don’t know yet.”

Some Russian and Belarusian gamers have EU passports to allow them to journey simpler. And Belarusian world No.73 Ilya Ivashka is enjoying within the Lexus Surbiton Trophy from Monday.