Federer, Roger

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      Roger Federer Came Along When Tennis Desperately Needed Him

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      Tennis had lost its cachet in the early 2000s before Federer made the classic sport modern and the modern sport classier.This may be it a little hard to remember amid the glow of record attendance at an electric 2022 U.S. Open, but tennis was not in a great spot when a promising young player from Switzerland with a goofy ponytail came along in the early 2000s.Tiger Woods had somehow made golf cool for the masses. But tennis, the hot sport of the 1970s and 1980s, was predominantly a game of the elite, followed and played largely in a rarefied niche.At the professional level, the men’s game essentially had one group of players who bludgeoned the ball and another that counterpunched. Andre Agassi was a rare exception who could do both and had some personality. Like a lot of players, though, he had an ambivalent relationship with the physical and emotional demands of a sport that seemed to make many miserable. There was not much joy to be found on the tennis court.Then, after some rough, temper-filled early years on the pro tour, Roger Federer, with his terrible haircut and tennis outfit two sizes too big, suddenly had people oohing and aahing as the months passed in 2001.“Baryshnikov in sneakers” is how the McEnroe brothers — John, the seven-time Grand Slam champion who had once garnered similarly lusty praise, and Patrick, the solid former pro and television commentator — often referred to Federer, comparing his style and grace on the court to ballet.Cliff Drysdale, another former pro and longtime commentator, began to notice that whenever Federer took the court, the locker room would empty as players either went to the stands or huddled around a television set in the players’ lounge to watch a man who seemed capable of creating shots and playing with a style they could only dream of. Drysdale had not seen that since the days of Rod Laver, the great Australian who had dominated in the 1960s.“When the admiration you receive extends beyond the fans to your fellow players, that is something,” Drysdale said Thursday in an interview. “And the players would watch all of Roger’s matches.”Federer returning a volley from Lleyton Hewitt during a match at the 2005 U.S. Open.Robert Caplin/The New York TimesHere was a player who could play any style from any place on the court. There was an ethereal quality to the way Federer created shots, like a jazz musician, improvising solos.How exactly does one hit a jumping, one-handed backhand on a ball that bounces to eye level? And the movement. Federer seemed to float across the court, the way a world-class sprinter flies down a track in a state of relaxation on his way to breaking a world record.“He elevated the sport at a time when it desperately needed it,” Patrick McEnroe said Thursday. “And I don’t mean this to be a knock on any of the great champions who came before him, including one I know particularly well, but he brought a classic game back to the modern game, and he brought a certain class back to the sport.”Once Federer got a haircut and some decent tennis clothes, his grace extended off the court. He appeared on the covers of fashion magazines. He hobnobbed as easily with C.E.O.s and heads of state as he visited with sick and impoverished children. He launched a foundation that has donated tens of millions of dollars to education in Africa, where his South African mother was born.“I always said that Arthur Ashe and Stan Smith were good players but great people,” said Donald Dell, a co-founder of the ATP, as well as an agent and tennis promoter. “Roger is a great, great player and greater person off the court, who became as good an ambassador for a sport as you could have when it needed it.”The trophies arrived by the truckload. By the end of 2008, when he was still just 27 years old, he had already won 13 Grand Slam titles, one behind the record. He would win seven more Grand Slam singles titles before he was done, and he was still winning them long past the age when anyone thought a tennis player could compete at the highest level.Rafael Nadal arrived to become a chief rival in the early 2000s, and then Novak Djokovic crashed the party and turned tennis into the three-way battle that has brought the sport to unprecedented heights.Federer made people feel like they were watching sport as a form of art. He was not simply playing tennis; he was redrawing the geometry of the court, hitting shots into spots where balls rarely bounced, from angles no one had seen. The novelist David Foster Wallace, who had been a decent junior player growing up in the Midwest, wrote about Federer the way others wrote about Vladimir Nabokov or Vincent van Gogh.The grace hid other qualities that led to his success. During his initial run of Grand Slam titles, wins seemed to come so easily that they masked just how competitive Federer was.That became clear after the 2009 Australian Open. He cried during the trophy ceremony after Nadal beat him in a third consecutive Grand Slam final, a stretch that included their epic five-set duel at Wimbledon in 2008 in what many consider the greatest professional tennis match ever played.Roger Federer wept as Rafael Nadal received the winner’s trophy at the Australian Open in 2009.Oliver Weiken/European Pressphoto Agency“It’s killing me,” he said of the losing streak.He channeled the pain into getting back to the top after everyone had thought his time had passed. He did this not once, but twice, the second time when he was 36 years old and won the last of his Grand Slam titles, and his third after his 35th birthday — an absurd concept then that Federer, Nadal and Djokovic have now made seem practically normal.The grace also masked an assassin-like ruthlessness that could torture opponents. Nick Kyrgios, the temperamental Australian star, has said that Federer is the only player who has ever made him feel like he really did not know what he was doing on a tennis court.Check some of the old score sheets. Amid the carnage is a 6-0-6-0 bludgeoning of Gaston Gaudio of Argentina, a French Open champion, at the ATP Masters in 2005; there is a 6-0, 6-1 destruction of Andy Murray in the ATP Tour Finals in London in 2014.In 2017 during the Wimbledon final, Marin Cilic suffered a blister on his foot midway through the match that rendered him nearly unable to compete. Cilic cried as he sat in his chair and received treatment from a trainer. Federer paced menacingly on the other side of the net, a look of disdain in his eyes, like a prize fighter wanting his opponent to get up so he could hit him again.And yet, as soon as Federer’s matches ended, all of that edge drifted away as the assassin turned back into a statesman — all smiles and gratitude for his opponents, for sponsors, for fans, for the staff at tournaments, even for journalists.“I don’t think the guy has ever had a bad day in his life,” said John McEnroe last month, marveling at how effortlessly Federer handled the demands of celebrity that had nearly crushed McEnroe in the 1980s.Paul Annacone, one of the few people to coach Federer, was asked last year why he thought Federer was attempting to come back from knee surgery at 39 after a long layoff that had coincided with the start of the pandemic. He said Federer simply loved tennis — the competition, the travel, the fans, all of it — and that allowed his personality to flow.Federer signing autographs during Aurthur Ashe Kids’ Day before the start of 2008 U.S. Open.Michael Nagle for The New York Times“His legacy is grace,” said Mary Carillo, a former player and current broadcaster. “Grace in the way he played. Grace under pressure. Grace with children. Grace with kings, with queens. Grace when he moved, when he sat still, when he won, when he lost. In French, in German, in English. In Afrikaans. It was just in his bones to be that way.” More

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      Roger Federer’s Career in Photos

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      His achievements made him famous, but his movements made him timeless. Sure, Roger Federer had the strength, stamina and guile to win 20 Grand Slam singles titles.But like an athlete from another age, it was his grace that stood out. His lithe form, his dancer’s lightness, his calm fluidity. Did he sweat? Did he panic? There was an effortlessness to his game, a tranquillity to his manner. He played melody when most of his rivals played percussion.He made it look easy. We knew it wasn’t. But for more than two decades, we were transfixed by the gift of the illusion.Now, at 41, Federer has announced his retirement from tennis. What he leaves behind may be less the moments than the way he moved between them.1998: Federer posed with the trophy after he won the boys’ singles title at Wimbledon.Professional Sport/Popperfoto via Getty Images2003: Federer on his way to winning Wimbledon.Alastair Grant/Associated Press2004: Celebrating after he won the Wimbledon men’s singles final against Andy Roddick.Clive Brunskill/Getty Images2005: Practicing at the U.S. Open, which he won that year along with Wimbledon.Vincent Laforet/The New York Times2006: Federer serving during the U.S. Open. He won, earning his third major title of the year.Robert Caplin for The New York Times2006: Federer after winning the Australian Open, his first of that year. He also won Wimbledon.William West/Agence France-Presse – Getty Images2007: Federer at the Australian Open, where he successfully defended his title.Clive Brunskill/Getty Images2007: Federer and his rival, Rafael Nadal, during an exhibition tennis match.Manu Fernandez/Associated Press2008: Federer signing autographs at the U.S. Open. It was the only major he won that year.Michael Nagle for The New York Times2009: Federer holding his sixth Wimbledon championship trophy.Clive Brunskill/Getty Images2009: Federer kicking up clay on his way to winning his first French Open.Patrick Kovarik/Agence France-Presse – Getty Images2010: Federer served in his quarterfinal match en route to another Australian Open title.Pool photo by Vivek Prakash2012: Andy Murray of Britain fell both literally and figuratively in front of Federer during the Wimbledon final.Pool photo by Clive Rose2015: Federer missed out on his sixth U.S. Open title, losing to Novak Djokovic.Chang W. Lee/The New York Times2017: Federer with another Wimbledon championship trophy.David Ramos/Getty Images2018: Federer won his last major title at the Australian Open.Edgar Su/Reuters More

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      The Shots That Made Roger Federer

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      [embedded content]Federer has had one of the most effective serves in tennis, winning 89 percent of his service games in his career, according to ATP statistics.With a consistent ball toss, Federer bends his knees, jumps, strikes the ball overhead and lands on his left foot. More

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      Roger Federer Says He Will Retire From Tennis

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      Federer, who won 20 Grand Slam singles titles, said injuries and surgeries had taken their toll on his body. His final competitive matches will be next week in London.Roger Federer, the elegant and enduring Swiss star who dominated men’s tennis for two decades but saw his more recent years marred by injuries and surgeries, said Thursday that he was retiring from the sport.“I am 41 years old, I have played more than 1,500 matches over 24 years,” Federer said in an audio clip posted on social media. “Tennis has treated me more generously than I ever would have dreamed and now I must recognize when it is time to end my competitive career.”To my tennis family and beyond,With Love,Roger pic.twitter.com/1UISwK1NIN— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) September 15, 2022
      Federer, the winner of 20 Grand Slam singles titles, said his appearance at next week’s Laver Cup in London would be his final competitive matches. He said he would continue to play tennis in the future, but that he would no longer compete on the ATP Tour or in Grand Slam tournaments like Wimbledon and the U.S. Open that he once dominated.“The past three years have presented me with challenges in the form of injuries and surgeries,” he said in a video on Twitter. “I’ve worked hard to return to full competitive form, but I also know my body’s capacities and limits, and its message to me lately has been clear.”Federer leaves the game with one of the greatest competitive records in the game’s history: 103 ATP singles titles, 20 Grand Slam championships, a record eight men’s singles titles at Wimbledon and a record-tying five at the U.S. Open.His decision to step away from the game comes after a similar one by Serena Williams, who announced before this year’s U.S. Open that she would wind down her playing career. But unlike Williams, who said she was “evolving” away from competitive tennis and has left the door slightly ajar to a “Tom Brady” style return, Federer was more definitive.“This is a bittersweet decision, because I will miss everything the tour has given me, but at the same time there is so much to celebrate,” he said. “I consider myself one of the most fortunate people on earth. I was given a special talent to play tennis and did it at a level I never imagined for much longer than I ever thought possible.”Federer, the son of a Swiss father and South African mother, was born in Basel, Switzerland in 1981 and spent his early years playing many different sports and was considered a particularly promising soccer player. But he definitively chose tennis after beginning to work with the Australian player Peter Carter, who began teaching at the Basel tennis club Old Boys to supplement his income as an aspiring tour-level player.Carter eventually chose coaching full-time, and he and Federer formed a special bond as he helped the youngster develop his flowing, elegant game, including his often-airborne forehand and his versatile and sweeping one-handed backhand.This is a developing story and will be updated. More

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      When Will Federer and the Williams Sisters Call It Quits? Maybe Never.

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      Advances in physical preparation keep their bodies in the game, and so can the changing nature of sports business and celebrity.WIMBLEDON, England — Most tennis professionals are retired by their mid-30s. But last week, there was Serena Williams, at almost 41, grinding against a competitor a little more than half her age for more than three hours at Wimbledon.Venus Williams, too, is here. She played mixed doubles, with tape on her right knee and not so much spring in her step at age 42. Roger Federer, who has not played since limping away from Wimbledon last year, is angling to return to the tennis tour in September, when he will be freshly 41. Rafael Nadal is threatening a deep Wimbledon run and eyeing the Grand Slam at 36 after a medical procedure that deadened the nerves in his troublesome left foot.To varying degrees, the biggest names in tennis keep going. Why is it so hard, with their best years behind them, to leave the stage and kick back with their millions? And it’s not just tennis. Tiger Woods, with an estimated net worth of $1 billion, is struggling to come back from devastating leg injuries at 46. Tom Brady can’t stay away from football. Regular working people go through life believing that retirement is the endgame. Not so with professional athletes.It is not just advances in physical preparation and nutrition keeping their bodies in the game. The changing nature of sports business and celebrity is conspiring to keep stars at it far longer than they have in the past. But there is also another element that has remained constant across the generations.“I get it 100 percent why they want to keep going,” said Martina Navratilova, a longtime No. 1 and 18-time major singles champion who retired at 37 in 1994, came back to play doubles and did not retire for good until she was almost 50.“You really appreciate it, and you realize how lucky you are to be out there doing what we do,” Navratilova said. “It’s a drug. It’s a very legal drug that many people would like to have but they can’t get.”Serena Williams exited Wimbledon in the first round for the second consecutive year, far from her fittest and gasping for air down the stretch. She and Federer soon face having no ranking in the sport they dominated for decades. Venus Williams decided at the last minute to play in mixed doubles at Wimbledon. But there have been no announcements on exit strategies; no target dates on end dates.“You never know where I’ll pop up,” Venus Williams said Friday, before she and Jamie Murray lost on Sunday to Alicia Barnett and Jonny O’Mara in a third-set tiebreaker in the round of 16.Earlier Sunday, at a ceremony at Centre Court, Federer, who has a men’s record eight Wimbledon titles but has not played a match in a year, said he hoped to play Wimbledon “one more time” before he retired.Roger Federer, 40, has not played since limping away from Wimbledon last year. He said on Sunday that he hoped to play another Wimbledon before he retired.Hannah Mckay/ReutersIt is a new sort of limbo: great champions well past their primes but not yet ready to call it a career while outsiders occupy themselves with speculation on when the call will come. Nadal, who has generated plenty of retirement chatter himself and said he was close to retiring only a couple of weeks ago because of chronic foot pain, understands the public’s quest for clarity. Famous athletes “become part of the life of so many people,” he said after advancing to the third round of Wimbledon.Even Nadal said he felt unsettled after seeing his friend Woods become only a part-time golfer. “That’s a change in my life, too.” But Woods, and the Williams sisters, like other aging and often-absent sports stars, remain active, not retired. There can be commercial incentives to keep it that way. Official retirement not only terminates a playing career. It can terminate an endorsement contract or a sponsorship deal and reduce a star’s visibility.“Typically, it’s black and white that when you announce your retirement, that’s clearly giving the company a right to terminate,” said Tom Ross, a longtime American tennis agent.But there are exceptions, Ross said, and champions who are late in their careers and of the stature of Federer and Serena Williams often have deals that provide them with security even if they retire before the deal expires. Federer’s 10-year clothing contract with Uniqlo is one example. He, like Serena Williams, also has the luxury of time.Nearly any other tennis player without a ranking would not be able to secure regular entry into top tournaments if they did decide to continue. But Federer and Williams have access to wild cards with their buzz-generating cachet, and can thus pick their spots.Nike, as Federer and some others have discovered, is disinclined to commit major money to superstars close to retirement, favoring active athletes with longer runways. But Mike Nakajima, a former director of tennis at Nike, said that Williams, still sponsored by Nike, was in an exceptional position. She has her own building on Nike’s campus.“Her building is bigger than the Portland International Airport,” Nakajima said. He added, “She’s had her hands in so many different things, so many interests, so many passions, that I think in a lot of ways it won’t matter when she stops. Serena will always be Serena.”This week, EleVen by Venus Williams, her lifestyle brand, started a Wimbledon collection of all-white clothing that was not hurt by the fact that Williams was actually playing at Wimbledon, if only in mixed doubles, after more than 10 months away from the tour.“Just inspired by Serena,” Venus Williams said.Venus Williams and Jamie Murray during their mixed doubles match at Wimbledon.Adrian Dennis/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesNavratilova, like many in the game, believes that Venus and Serena Williams will retire together when the time comes. If it comes. The advantages of formally announcing retirement are few: a temporary surge in publicity and an end to random drug testing. It can, in some cases, start the clock on your pension or on making you eligible to be elected into a sport’s Hall of Fame.Retirement is perhaps more a rite than a necessity. John McEnroe, for one, never officially retired, a technicality which, in his case, did allow him to keep earning more for a time from some existing contracts.“Well, look how well retirement worked out for Tom Brady; it got a lot of attention and then it was, ‘Oh, I changed my mind.’ OK!” Navratilova said with a laugh. She added, “Do you ask a doctor or a lawyer how much longer are you going to keep practicing? People put thoughts in your head that might not be there otherwise.”Federer has been hearing retirement questions since he finally won the French Open in 2009, completing his set of singles titles at each of the four Grand Slam events at age 27. Venus Williams, who went through a midcareer dip partially linked to an autoimmune disorder, has been hearing them for over a decade, as well.“When it’s my last, I’ll let you know,” she said at Wimbledon last year.Here she is, back for more, just like her kid sister, although perhaps even the Williamses don’t know how much more. Navratilova does not recommend giving too much advance notice. When she announced that 1994 would be her last season, she regretted it.“If I had to do it over again, I would definitely not say anything, because it was exhausting; it was much more emotionally draining than it would have been otherwise,” she said. “For your own good, forget whatever it may do for or against your brand. I wouldn’t announce it until that’s it.”And it was not it. She came back and ended up winning the U.S. Open mixed doubles title with Bob Bryan in her real last tour-level match at age 49, one of tennis’s better final acts.“My thing is, if you enjoy playing and really get something out of it still, then play,” Navratilova said. “Venus has been playing and people say she’s hurting her legacy. No, those titles are still there.” More

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      Roger Federer’s Absence Leaves a Void at Wimbledon

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      Federer said he hoped to return to the tournament he has won eight times before. His absence from the field this year left a void over Wimbledon’s early rounds.WIMBLEDON, England — There he was, a surprise, perhaps the biggest of this Wimbledon fortnight: Roger Federer in the flesh Sunday on Centre Court.As always, he looked handsome and freshly pressed. But instead of his tennis whites, Federer wore a trim, dark suit to to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Centre Court.Flanked by a slew of past Wimbledon champions, Federer was on hand only briefly, but no player received a louder greeting. Not Bjorn Borg. Not Venus Williams. Not Rod Laver or Billie Jean King, not Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic.For the first time since 1998, when he announced himself to the tennis world by winning the junior event, Federer is not playing Wimbledon. At age 40, he’s still rehabbing after surgery on his right knee and is unsure of his playing future.“I’ve been lucky enough to play a lot of matches on this court,” Federer said, speaking into a microphone, his voice ringing across the court. He added, “It feels awkward to be here today in a different type of role.”He continued for a short while, bathing in the warm adoration, taking in the old stadium and its memories. “This court has given me my biggest wins, my biggest losses,” he said.“I hope I can come back one more time.”The fans sitting around me at Centre Court went nuts.And then Federer was gone.Wimbledon 2022 has been a strange journey. Instead of the usual electric energy coursing through each day, signaling the peak of the tennis season and the start of the English summer, the feel has been slightly off — like a master violinist struggling for just the right note.During the opening four days, attendance dropped to levels not seen in over a decade. The barring of Russians and Belarusians robbed the tournament of several marquee names, including the world’s top-ranked male, Daniil Medvedev. Their exclusion caused protests by the men’s and women’s tours, which decided not to officially recognize the results with ranking points, essentially turning the entire affair into the most lavish tennis exhibition ever held.Those are some mighty blows.But there’s something else that feels off about this Wimbledon.Instead of charging into the tournament’s second week as the men’s favorite and the fans’ hoped-for winner at a tournament where he is worshiped like a god, Federer floated in for the centennial celebration and then was scheduled to jet back home to Switzerland.The tournament goes on. But a Wimbledon without Federer is like a Wimbledon where there are strawberries but no cream.How do you explain the power of absence? Maybe through the shock of looking at the men’s draw and not seeing the most familiar name. Or through a fan’s shout, such as the one that came out loud and true, expressing palpable longing during a prime-time match last week.“Is that Roger Federer?” someone yelled, the voice ringing across Court No. 1 during a tense late-night match between two guys, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Nick Kyrgios, who could offer only a glimpse of the grace Federer brought to every match at Wimbledon.The yell was aimed at Tsitsipas, of Greece, whose one-handed backhand and flowing strokes call to mind the eight-time champion.Close is not the real thing. Tsitsipas is no Federer.There are no guarantees that Federer will ever play here again, though we now know that he hopes to. “I think maybe there’s a little magic left,” said Tony Godsick, Federer’s longtime agent, as we walked the grounds last week.“I’m not sure that magic means having to hold up a trophy,” Godsick added. “Magic means going out on your own terms, being healthy, and enjoying it.” He looked out at one of the grass courts. “There will be places where he’ll be able to do better just because of the nature of the surface,” he said. “But if it doesn’t happen, he gave everything.”The deep, even ethereal connection Federer has with this vine-covered Taj Mahal of tennis is about more than longevity.Part of it is style. Wimbledon is white linen, polished gold, light cotton fineries, ascots and the Duke and Duchess of Kent in the royal box. Everything about the refined Federer fits this palace, from his old-school game to the gliding way he walks.Part of it is substance: the fine art of victory. Federer was the champion in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 and 2017.Part of it is losing, but weathering the storm in the right way.For a while, the Swiss player seemed like he might never be conquered on the low-cut grass. Then came Nadal. When Nadal finally beat Federer in the final in 2008, their match was regarded as one of the greatest ever played. Who can forget Federer’s comeback, his saved match points and Nadal’s unquenchable desire? The match ended in the dwindling sunlight, 9-7 in the fifth set, with Federer shedding tears of agony.Federer’s Wimbledon final against Novak Djokovic in 2019 was perhaps the last great match of Federer’s career.Nic Bothma/EPA, via ShutterstockHe suddenly seemed vulnerable, human, within reach. Showing weakness at a tournament he had owned for five straight summers, and handling it with grace, made Federer more popular than ever.To the fervently loyal fans of Nadal and Djokovic, he was the perfect foil, the one to root most lustily against, the one player they most wanted to defeat and send off with head bowed.In the last great match we saw him play at Wimbledon, possibly the last great match of his career, the marathon championship final of 2019, Federer held two match points while serving against Djokovic. The Serb won both, tracking down the last of them by skimming across the baseline and, as he so often does, producing a winning passing shot. About an hour later, he won the match, 13-12, in a fifth-set tiebreaker.Watching Djokovic play on Centre Court last week, it was impossible not to think of that classic. There he was again, the defending champion, dashing across the same baseline with the same staunch resolve as when he snatched victory from his longtime rival. Djokovic may well win this year’s tournament, which would give him seven Wimbledon titles overall. But other than among his loyal fans — and yes, there are many — watching him plow through opponents with metronomic efficiency and tight-lipped swagger does not quite stir the soul.He is a marvel, all right. So is a microwave oven.Then I watched Jannik Sinner of Italy, 20, who is little known outside tennis but regarded as a potential future force within it. Sinner may not win Wimbledon this year, but there’s a good chance he will one day.On Sunday, against another precocious talent, 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, Sinner hit his forehands with a consistent mix of heavy speed and daring curve. He added aces, drop shots and deep returns. The crowd on Centre Court swayed and swooned with his every move.It felt reminiscent of the energy surrounding a certain Swiss player at the start of his great Wimbledon career. It was a reminder of the way greatness gives way to greatness, one generation to the next — and a reminder that Federer was not on hand to help keep youth at bay. Not this year, at least. Maybe next. More

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      Tennis Tours Penalize Wimbledon Over Ban on Russian Players

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      PARIS — The men’s and women’s tennis tours responded to Wimbledon’s ban on Russian and Belarusian players on Friday by stripping the event of ranking points this year, the most significant rebuke to date of efforts by global sports organizations to ostracize individual Russian athletes as punishment for their country’s invasion of Ukraine.It is a move without precedent in tennis, and without the points, Wimbledon, the oldest of the four Grand Slam tournaments, will technically be an exhibition event, bringing no ranking boost to those who excel on its pristine lawns this year.“The ability for players of any nationality to enter tournaments based on merit, and without discrimination is fundamental to our Tour,” the ATP said in a statement, saying that the ban undermined its ranking system.The International Tennis Federation, a governing body that operates separately from the tours, also announced it would remove ranking points from the junior and wheelchair events at Wimbledon this year.Though Wimbledon, for now, is the only one of the four major tournaments to ban Russians and Belarusians, the power play by the tours could lead to countermeasures, including the possibility of Grand Slam events considering an alternative ranking system or aligning to make more decisions independently of the tours.Organizers of Wimbledon, a grass-court tournament and British cultural institution that begins on June 27, announced the ban on Russian and Belarusian players last month in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which was undertaken with the support of Belarus. Other British grass-court tournaments that are staged in June, including the Wimbledon prep events at Eastbourne and at Queen’s Club in London, have announced similar bans.So have sports as diverse as soccer, auto racing, track and field and ice hockey. Russia has been stripped of the hosting rights to events and has seen its teams ejected from major competitions like soccer’s World Cup. But only a few sports, notably figure skating and track and field, have barred individual athletes from Russia and Belarus from competing.Both tours condemned the invasion of Ukraine but argued that individual athletes should not be prevented from competing, in the words of WTA chief executive Steve Simon, “solely because of their nationalities or the decisions made by the governments of their countries.”But Sergiy Stakohvsky, a recently retired Ukrainian men’s player now in the Ukrainian military, expressed bitterness at the decision, calling it a “shameful day in tennis” in a post on Twitter.Standing by its ban, Wimbledon expressed “deep disappointment” and said stripping points was “disproportionate” in light of the pressure it was under from the British government.The ATP’s and WTA’s move was made after extensive internal debate and despite considerable pushback from players. A sizable group of men’s and women’s players was gathering support for a petition in favor of retaining Wimbledon’s points before the tours made their announcements. But removing the points is expected to have little effect on the tournament’s bottom line.The world’s top players who are not from Russia and Belarus are still expected to participate. Novak Djokovic, the world No. 1 men’s player from Serbia and a six-time Wimbledon champion, made it clear on Sunday after winning the Italian Open in Rome that he would not support skipping the event in protest even if he remained against the decision to bar the Russian and Belarusian players.“A boycott is a very aggressive thing,” Djokovic said. “There are much better solutions.”This year’s Wimbledon champions will still play in front of big crowds, lift the same trophies hoisted by their predecessors and have their names inscribed on the honor roll posted inside the clubhouse of the All England Club. They will be considered Grand Slam champions although it remains unclear whether Wimbledon will maintain prize money at its usual levels.Stripping points will have consequences on the sport’s pecking order. Daniil Medvedev, a Russian ranked No. 2, is now in excellent position to displace No. 1 Novak Djokovic after Wimbledon because Djokovic’s 2,000 points for winning Wimbledon last year will come off his total without being replaced. Medvedev, who reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon last year, will only lose 180 points.The leadership of the ATP, including its player council, which includes stars like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, ultimately decided that it was important to dissuade tournaments from barring players — now or in the future — based on political concerns.“How do you draw the line of when you ban players and when you don’t?” Yevgeny Kafelnikov, a Russian and a former No. 1 singles player, said in a telephone interview from Moscow.Unlike Wimbledon, the lead-in events in Britain have retained their ranking points despite being formally part of the tours. Wimbledon, as a Grand Slam event, operates independently but does have agreements with the tours on many levels. But the ATP and WTA chose not to strip points from the British lead-in events because other European tournaments were still open to Russian and Belarusian players during those three weeks of the season. The WTA did announce that it was putting the British tour events in Nottingham, Birmingham and Eastbourne on probation because of the ban.Russia-Ukraine War: Key DevelopmentsCard 1 of 4Russia’s punishment of Finland. More