Men’s tennis world number one Novak Djokovic called the decision to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from Wimbledon 2022 this summer “crazy”. “I will always condemn the war, I will never support the war being myself a child of war – said Djokovic – having grown up during the civil wars that followed the collapse of Yugoslavia. Tennis players, athletes have nothing to do with war. When politics interferes with sport, the result is not good. ” According to what was anticipated yesterday by the BBC, the measure will prevent in particular the Russian Daniil Medvedev – number 2 in the world – and the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka – number 4 in the ranking – from taking to the field at the All England Club. The exclusion will concern the women’s field also Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (number 15) and the Belarusian Victoria Azarenka (18). Among the men, Andrey Rublev (8) and Karen Khachanov (26) are also out. The decision is described as “unacceptable” by the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov. “Once again, the athletes are made hostages of political prejudices, of political intrigues, of hostile actions against our country”, added Peskov, underlining that, given the quality of Russian tennis players, the Wimbledon tournament itself will lose.