‘Important to continue talking about what’s happening in Ukraine’, says Andy Murray

New Delhi: Former World no 1 tennis player Andy Murray has said that it is important to continue to talk about what’s actually happening in Ukraine instead of focusing on a handful of players who may or may not be able to participate in major tournaments.

Murray, who is a member of All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), said that the decision of lifting the ban from Russian and Belarusian players was “difficult” as the lack of support from the rest of the tennis world left Wimbledon with very little choice.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year, All-England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) and Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) banned the Russian and Belarusian players from British tournaments including Wimbledon.

Last month, however, Wimbledon announced Russian and Belarusians would be readmitted in 2023, complying with appropriate conditions, including the requirement to sign a declaration of neutrality.

“I think what’s really important is to continue to talk about what’s actually happening in Ukraine just now, not focusing on a few tennis players and a few athletes who may or may not be able to play major sporting events,” Murray told Tennis Majors.

“It’s a difficult decision for Wimbledon. Obviously the rest of the sport had gone in a completely different direction to them, which made it very hard. But I don’t think this should be so much about that decision. I think it is distracting a little bit from actually what is taking place. You don’t want that to happen. You want the actual issue to be at the forefront of all of these discussions,” he said.

The two-time Wimbledon champion said that he empathizes with all the players who have been impacted by the war in Ukraine.

Various Ukrainian players have spoken out about how difficult it is for them to compete while their country is at war and have openly called for the tennis world to offer more support for tennis players coming from the war-torn country.

The 35-year old Murray said he believes tennis must now do everything it can to help Ukrainian players, their families and Ukraine in general.

“Obviously I have sympathy for the Ukrainian players. I’ve seen that some of the female players (notably Elena Svitolina and Marta Kostyuk) have spoken out about how difficult they found it and maybe felt like they could have had more support as well through that,” he said.

“You need to understand their perspective as well, and not just the players that weren’t allowed to play last year. There are Ukrainian players on the tour whose families and everything (are affected) and they’re going through unbelievably difficult times as well. And that’s what’s important,” he added.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Scot, who is a Unicef ambassador, announced last March that he would give all the prize money he earned from that point on to help children in the country through Unicef, for which he has been named winner of the ATP’s Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award last year.