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      Once Again, Tennis Is Disrupted by Politics

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      The sport has a long history of disputes, especially over apartheid. This year Wimbledon has banned Russian and Belarusian players.If he had it to do over, Brad Gilbert would never have played a professional tennis tournament in South Africa while the country was embroiled in apartheid.Martina Navratilova has never regretted challenging Czechoslovakia’s Communist government by defecting to the United States in 1975, but she wishes she had been able to convince her parents and younger sister to come with her.And Cliff Drysdale, the first president of the ATP, the men’s pro players’ association, is still in awe of his fellow pros for agreeing to boycott Wimbledon in 1973 when the Croatian player Nikola Pilic was suspended by his native Yugoslav Tennis Federation, which said he refused to play for Yugoslavia in the Davis Cup in New Zealand.Cliff Drysdale, far right, president of the ATP, announcing that its members would boycott Wimbledon in 1973 because the Yugoslav Tennis Federation had suspended the Croatian player Nikola Pilic. PA Images, via Getty ImagesTennis and politics have long had a craggy relationship. This year alone, the sport has been embroiled in three international incidents — Novak Djokovic’s deportation from Australia on the eve of the Australian Open because he did not have a Covid vaccination; the Women’s Tennis Association canceling all tournaments in China following accusations by Peng Shuai that she was sexually assaulted by a high-ranking government official; and Wimbledon banning Russian and Belarusian players because of the war in Ukraine. Both the WTA and the ATP subsequently stripped this year’s Wimbledon of all ranking points.As this tournament begins, five male players ranked in the world’s top 50, including No. 1 Daniil Medvedev and No. 8 Andrey Rublev, both Russians, will be absent because of the Wimbledon ban. Also banned are the Russians Karen Khachanov, ranked No. 22, and Aslan Karatsev, No. 43; and the Belarusian Ilya Ivashka, No. 40.Daniil Medvedev, the No. 1 player in the world, is among the Russians who will not be allowed to compete at Wimbledon. Thomas F. Starke/Getty ImagesFor the women, 13 players who would have qualified are not allowed to play, including the Russians Daria Kasatkina, ranked No. 13, Veronika Kudermetova, No. 22, and No. 83 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the 2021 French Open runner-up; and the Belarusians Aryna Sabalenka, No. 6 and a semifinalist last year at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, and No. 20 Victoria Azarenka, a former world No. 1.The United States Tennis Association has already announced that players from Russia and Belarus will be allowed to compete at the United States Open in August, though not under their nations’ flags.Better Understand the Russia-Ukraine WarHistory and Background: Here’s what to know about Russia and Ukraine’s relationship and the causes of the conflict.How the Battle Is Unfolding: Russian and Ukrainian forces are using a bevy of weapons as a deadly war of attrition grinds on in eastern Ukraine.Russia’s Brutal Strategy: An analysis of more than 1,000 photos found that Russia has used hundreds of weapons in Ukraine that are widely banned by international treaties.Outside Pressures: Governments, sports organizations and businesses are taking steps to punish Russia. Here are some of the sanctions adopted so far and a list of companies that have pulled out of the country.Stay Updated: To receive the latest updates on the war in your inbox, sign up here. The Times has also launched a Telegram channel to make its journalism more accessible around the world.“I have some sympathy for the Russian players, but Wimbledon did the right thing,” said Drysdale, a Wimbledon semifinalist in 1965 and 1966. “We have to do anything possible to send a message to the Kremlin that they are committing crimes against humanity.”In 1964, anti-apartheid demonstrators tried to stop a Davis Cup match in Oslo. Organizers eventually moved the match to a secret location without spectators.Keystone/Getty ImagesThroughout his decades in the sport, Drysdale has witnessed several instances in which tennis and world politics have collided. A native South African, Drysdale, 81, played against Norway in the Davis Cup in 1964 under police protection after demonstrators protesting apartheid tossed rocks and lay down on the court until event organizers were forced to move the match to a secret location without spectators.Drysdale was also a member of the team in 1974 when South Africa, which had been temporarily reinstated after it was banned in 1970, won the Davis Cup by default because India refused to travel to the country over objections to apartheid.And in the Pilic Affair, as it was called at the time, the newly formed ATP, led by Drysdale, objected to the disciplinary action taken against Pilic, which denied him the opportunity to compete at Wimbledon. About 80 men withdrew from the tournament in support of Pilic, including 13 of the top 16 seeds. Wimbledon went on, but with a significantly weakened field.“Our sport is always going to be subjected to political forces, said Drysdale, an ESPN commentator since the network’s inception in 1979. “There’s always something coming around the corner and rearing its head.”If it weren’t for politics, Jimmy Connors might have captured the Grand Slam in 1974. That year, Connors won 94 of 98 matches and 15 of 20 tournaments, including Wimbledon and the Australian and U.S. Opens. But he was barred from playing the French Open by the French Tennis Federation and the ATP when he signed a contract to play World TeamTennis, the fledging league founded in part by Billie Jean King. The French federation and the ATP argued that World TeamTennis took players away from tour events.Martina Navratilova in 1975 after requesting asylum in the United States. Navratilova, who was 18 at the time, said in a recent interview, “I knew I was brave at the time, but I had no idea what a political situation it would create.”Associated PressA year later, Navratilova created an international incident when she defected from Czechoslovakia right after losing to Chris Evert in the semifinals of the 1975 U.S. Open. Navratilova, then just 18, felt chafed by the then-Communist Czech government, which controlled her finances, travel visas, even her doubles partners.“I defected because my country wouldn’t let me out,” Navratilova, who would go on to win 18 major singles championships, including nine Wimbledons and four U.S. Opens, said in an interview this month. “I really had no idea what I was doing or when I would see my family again. I knew I was brave at the time, but I had no idea what a political situation it would create.”Seven years after Navratilova’s defection, the Chinese player Hu Na fled her hotel room during the 1982 Federation Cup in California and sought political asylum. Her request was granted, but only once, in 1985, did Hu reach the third round at Wimbledon. She ultimately settled in Taiwan.Andy Roddick doesn’t like to take credit, but he is partly responsible for Shahar Peer of Israel being allowed to compete in the United Arab Emirates.In 2009, Peer was denied a visa to play in a WTA tournament in Dubai. The U.A.E. and Israel had no diplomatic relations at the time, and tournament organizers said that Peer’s appearance would incite protests. The move prompted Tennis Channel to cancel its coverage of the tournament.The Israeli player Shahar Peer was allowed to play in a tournament in Dubai in 2010 only after Andy Roddick, the defending champion, refused to compete in the tournament in 2009 because Peer had been denied a visa.Marwan Naamani/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesRoddick, in support of Peer, pulled out of the Dubai Tennis Championships despite being the defending champion. The next year Peer was granted a visa to compete in Dubai, though she was surrounded by security guards, and her matches, including a semifinal loss to Venus Williams, were relegated to an inconspicuous outside court.Gilbert is sympathetic to the plight of the Ukrainian players and those from Russia and Belarus. He worries that if the players speak out against their governments’ policies they will jeopardize their families at home. Gilbert, a former player, coach and current ESPN analyst, also understands Wimbledon’s position.“You have to realize that Wimbledon is a private, member-owned club,” Gilbert said by phone last week. “The tournament is not run by a national federation the way the Australian, French and U.S. Opens are. Wimbledon makes its own decisions. They don’t answer to anyone.”Anti-apartheid demonstrators in 1977 outside the U.S. Open protesting the participation of South Africans in the tournament.Dave Pickoff/Associated PressGilbert didn’t answer to anyone when he decided to compete in South Africa five times from 1983 to 1988. Even though he said that Arthur Ashe, the president of the ATP, asked him to stay away because of the political situation, Gilbert opted to take both the appearance fees and the prize money.In 1987, Gilbert was vilified for playing in Johannesburg to amass enough points to qualify for the year-end Masters. By reaching the final of the South African Open, he overtook fellow American Tim Mayotte, who refused to compete on moral grounds.“It was probably the wrong thing to do. At 22, what did I know?” said Gilbert, referring to when he first played in South Africa. “I didn’t realize the gravity of the situation. Brad Gilbert now wouldn’t go there. I understand now that politics and sports can’t help but be intertwined. Back then I was just dumb.” More

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      Brittney Griner’s Team Meets With U.S. State Department Over Her Detention

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      U.S. State Department officials met on Monday with Brittney Griner’s W.N.B.A. team, the Phoenix Mercury, to discuss the status of Griner’s monthslong detention in Russia and efforts made toward securing her release.Griner, one of the W.N.B.A.’s most recognizable stars, has been held in Russia since Feb. 17, after customs officials accused her of carrying hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow.In May, the State Department said it determined that Griner had been “wrongfully detained.”“It’s something that we’ve all talked about intimately as a group, and now knowing the State Department at the highest level, from U.S. President Joe Biden to the team that is working on bringing back all Americans who are wrongfully detained, gives us a lot of confidence that they’re working on it,” Diana Taurasi, the Mercury’s star guard, said in a statement. “Anything that we can do on our side to amplify and to put B.G. first will be our No. 1 priority.”The meeting included representatives from the State Department, including the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, according to a department spokesman. After, members of the Mercury spoke with Representatives Greg Stanton, Democrat of Arizona, and Sheila Jackson Lee, Democrat of Texas. In May, Stanton, Jackson Lee and Representative Colin Allred, Democrat of Texas, introduced a resolution calling for Griner’s release.The Mercury are in Washington to play the Mystics on Tuesday.Mercury forward Brianna Turner said officials encouraged the team to continue talking publicly about Griner.“They encouraged us to keep speaking her name, to keep holding them accountable to bring B.G. back home as soon as possible,” Turner said in a statement.Griner was returning to Russia to play for UMMC Yekaterinburg, a professional women’s basketball team, when she was detained. Many W.N.B.A. players supplement their incomes in the league’s off-season by playing internationally, where the top-tier athletes can draw salaries of around $1 million.The drug charges carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison if Griner is convicted in Russia.Mercury Coach Vanessa Nygaard. Those close to Griner initially had a strategy of silence to avoid politicizing her case, but that has since shifted to a more public campaign.Darryl Webb/Associated PressInitially, Griner’s supporters spoke little publicly about the detention, fearing her situation would become part of the larger global conflict involving Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the United States’ strained relationship with Russia.That strategy shifted after the State Department declared Griner had been “wrongfully detained” days after Russia exchanged Trevor R. Reed, a former U.S. Marine who had been sentenced to nine years in prison for assault, in a prisoner swap.Reed’s freedom raised hopes for the releases of Griner and Paul N. Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who was sentenced in Russia to 16 years in prison on espionage charges.What to Know About Brittney Griner’s Detention in RussiaCard 1 of 5What happened? More

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      Brittney Griner’s Supporters Have a New Strategy to Free Her: Make Noise

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      Those close to Griner pursued a strategy of silence after her detention in Russia in February, hoping to avoid politicizing her case. Now they are amping up public pressure, with some of it aimed at President Biden.Her face is on hoodies. Her name is in hashtags. Her “B.G.” and number are on fans’ jerseys and W.N.B.A. courts.As the Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner waits in Russia, detained since Feb. 17 on drug charges, symbols of support for her are all around. They come from people who don’t know her at all and people who know and love her — from teammates, sympathizers and former coaches.Dawn Staley, who coached Griner and her U.S. teammates to a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics last year, said she thinks about her every day.“I know Brittney, I’ve been around her, know her heart. I know what she’s about,” Staley said. “And if she’s being wrongfully detained or not, I would be advocating for her release because nobody should be in a foreign country locked up abroad.”Staley has posted messages on Twitter about Griner every day since early May. “Can you please free our friend,” she wrote on Tuesday, tagging the official account for the White House. She added, “All of her loved ones would sleep a little easier.”It has been more than three months since Griner was detained, accused of having hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. But only in the last few weeks has there been a coordinated public campaign by W.N.B.A. players and by Griner’s wife, family, friends and agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, to push for her release. That’s where the hoodies — worn by many different players — and the initials — displayed on W.N.B.A. courts — come in. The #WeAreBG hashtag seen on warm-up shirts and social media is also part of the campaign.On Saturday, the W.N.B.A. players’ union posted messaging on social media marking the 100th day of Griner’s detention.Decals with Griner’s No. 42 and initials are on each court in the W.N.B.A.Jennifer Buchanan/The Seattle Times, via Associated PressThe delay in starting the campaign was strategic: Griner’s camp was worried that publicity could make the situation worse because of tensions between Russia and the United States, including the war in Ukraine. But the delay has also been a source of frustration for women’s basketball players known for their social justice advocacy. Their approach has changed since the State Department said on May 3 that it had determined that Griner had been “wrongfully detained.”“Griner’s reclassification as wrongfully detained by the U.S. government cued our shift to the more public activist elements of our strategy,” Kagawa Colas said, adding that she could not elaborate out of respect for the sensitivity of the situation.Supporters have quickly joined in the new approach.“We’re more public,” said Terri Jackson, the executive director of the W.N.B.A. players’ union. One reason, she said, was the State Department’s determination, and another was the guidance of Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner.“She’s lead on this,” Jackson said. “She signaled through her team that she needed us, and that’s all we needed to hear.”Cherelle Griner appeared on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday and appealed to President Biden to intervene.“I just keep hearing that he has the power,” Cherelle Griner said. “She’s a political pawn. If they’re holding her because they want you to do something, then I want you to do it.”The State Department’s announcement this month said that Biden’s special envoy for hostage affairs would lead an interagency team to secure Griner’s release. But since then, Griner’s detention has been extended until June 18, and the Biden administration has said little about its maneuvering. Cherelle Griner said during the television interview that her only communication with her wife had been through occasional letters. She said she had been told that her wife’s release was a top priority, but she expressed skepticism.Representative Colin Allred, Democrat of Texas, has been speaking publicly about Brittney Griner’s detention and working with her representatives. He said Griner, who is from Houston, has had access to her attorney in Russia but has not been able to speak with her family. That violated international norms, he said.“The Russians need to be aware that we know what they’re doing, we know why they’re doing it and there will be consequences if anything should happen to her,” Allred said.Griner’s family and friends have sought to pressure Russia and Biden while also pleading for more support and news coverage in the United States.“There’s not enough conversations being had about Brittney and her release and just any talks of it,” said Staley, the women’s basketball coach at the University of South Carolina. “And I know there’s a process. I get that.”She added later: “There’s so many people that really know Brittney that aren’t doing anything, that aren’t sympathizing with the situation. I just want people to feel like it’s their loved one. And when you feel like it’s your loved one you would do anything to help. Everybody’s got to live their life, I get that, but come on. Empathize.”Fans have waged their own public campaign for Griner, even when those closest to her used a strategy of silence.Darryl Webb/Associated PressSeveral players in the W.N.B.A., and a few in the N.B.A., have begun publicly advocating Griner’s release; in the first two and a half months after Griner’s detention most had said only that they loved and missed her.Seattle Storm forward Breanna Stewart, who was named the league’s most valuable player in 2018, posts daily on Twitter about Griner. DeWanna Bonner, who plays for the Connecticut Sun and was Griner’s teammate in Phoenix from 2013 to 2019, brought up Griner during a recent news conference.“One more thing,” she said. “Free B.G. We are B.G. We love B.G. Free her.”In mid-May, the W.N.B.A. players’ union became an official partner on a Change.org petition addressed to the White House, which urged Biden to do “whatever is necessary” to bring Griner home safely. The petition was started in March by Tamryn Spruill, a freelance journalist who has written for several media outlets, including The New York Times, about the W.N.B.A. Griner’s representatives at Wasserman promoted the petition to news outlets.In an interview with ESPN on May 17, N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver was asked what role the league should play in Griner’s situation. The N.B.A. owns 42.1 percent of the W.N.B.A.What to Know About Brittney Griner’s Detention in RussiaCard 1 of 5What happened? More

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      Medvedev Seizes Chance to Make an Impression on French Open Fans

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      Daniil Medvedev and other Russians, barred from competing at Wimbledon because of the war in Ukraine, have made a run in the French Open. The ban remains a sensitive issue in tennis.PARIS — Banned from Wimbledon, the Russians seem intent on making the most of the Grand Slam tournament at hand.One by one, they took to the red clay at the French Open on Saturday, and one by one, they emerged victorious.Daria Kasatkina and Veronika Kudermetova advanced to the fourth round in women’s singles. Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev did the same in men’s singles, joining their compatriot Karen Khachanov, who was already set to face Carlos Alcaraz, the Spanish teen sensation, on Sunday.Medvedev remains the most intriguing Russian at Roland Garros on multiple levels. As the No. 2 seed, he is on relatively dry land for the moment: on the opposite half of the draw from Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Alcaraz.He was once seemingly allergic to clay, at least the French Open, losing in the first round in his first four appearances. He still has a losing record on the surface, but he made a French Open quarterfinal run last year, and after hernia surgery in March that caused him to miss most of the clay-court season, he arrived in Paris seemingly fresh in body and mind. On court, he has rumbled past three solid players in straight sets, including the No. 28 seed Miomir Kecmanovic on Saturday: 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.Medvedev did not lose his serve and seemed to be one step or slide ahead of Kecmanovic from start to finish, absorbing pace, producing power and precision on demand, and using his big wingspan at 6-foot-6 to close down the openings.“Today was truly magnificent,” Medvedev said in the sunshine as he gave his post-match interview on Suzanne Lenglen Court. “It was all working for me. There are days like that, and I hope more like that will be possible in the days ahead.”Medvedev was conducting the interview in fluent French. He has been based on the French Riviera since his teens, and with his droll sense of humor and language skills he is able to connect with the Parisian public on a level that is unusual for a foreign tennis player (as long as he continues to avoid berating chair umpires or breaking rackets in a fit of pique).The global repercussions of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have included a sensitive dilemma for tennis, prompted by Wimbledon’s decision to bar Russian and Belarusian players from the tournament next month. The men’s and women’s tours responded by stripping Wimbledon of its ranking points, saying the move was needed to protect its systems that in part determine tournament qualifications.It is, as Djokovic described it, “a lose-lose” situation: full of hard choices and restless nights for those making the calls.But Medvedev, caught in the maelstrom, hardly seemed a pariah on Saturday as he cracked jokes with the interviewer Marion Bartoli, a former French star and Wimbledon champion.“He speaks French as well as we do, like someone born in France even if he was born in Moscow,” she said. “He understands what is going on, understands his environment, and it’s clear that it pleases the public here a great deal that he communicates in their language.”Some of that is due to communicating for years in French with his longtime French coach, Gilles Cervara.“Gilles is sometimes trying to use words on purpose that I don’t know, that I should know, that are uncommon,” Medvedev said. “It’s the same thing with tennis, where you’re trying to do things that are out of the ordinary to shake things up and do something extra. You have to always improve.”I asked Medvedev later what it would take for him to be considered “a dirtballer.”His reaction: “What is ‘dirtballer’?”Apprised that it meant clay-courter, he smiled and said: “I’ll have to do better than last year in Roland Garros. That’s for sure.”Like many a Muscovite, including Rublev, Medvedev grew up playing much of the year in fast indoor conditions.“It was not even hardcourts — it was more like indoor ice,” Rublev said with a laugh on Saturday. “You touch the ball and the ball is like a rocket. You hit one ball and the ball is going so fast, even when you are 6 years old. In Moscow, there is actually plenty of clay, but the problem is there’s not much summer, only two or three months, so you don’t get much time to play on it.”Rublev, the No. 7 seed and long based in Spain, has had more consistent results on clay at the pro level and was a quarterfinalist at the French Open in 2020 and a finalist at the Monte Carlo Open last year. His forehand, hit with heavy topspin and major racket-head speed, fits the traditional vision of a clay-courter much more than Medvedev’s with his comparatively flat strokes.But it is very tempting to agree with Rublev that Medvedev’s biggest obstacle on clay is between the ears.“He didn’t beat Djokovic in Monte Carlo for nothing,” Rublev said in an interview, recalling a 2019 upset. “So, I think it’s more about him, that he put this in his head, than it is about the clay. And we can all see now that he has won all the matches here quite easy, beating good players.”Still, the path does not get smoother. Medvedev is in a more welcoming neighborhood than the top half of the draw, but it is still a rough neighborhood with Rublev, Jannik Sinner, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Hubert Hurkacz and Casper Ruud all on the prowl.Next up for Medvedev: the No. 20 seed Marin Cilic, who overwhelmed a weary Gilles Simon, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2, on Saturday in the 37-year-old Simon’s final French Open match (he will retire at year’s end). Simon, one of the cleanest hitters and deeper thinkers on tour, gave an excellent summary of why it will soon be time to bid adieu.“It’s a lot of work and a lot of suffering,” Simon said. “I am at three anti-inflammatories and six paracetamols before the match. The only thing left to try is morphine. I know where I’m at. I’ll give it my all until the end of the year.”Medvedev sounded world-weary himself after losing the Australian Open final to Nadal in January with the crowd against him. He looked tired and irritable in March as he lost early in Indian Wells to Gael Monfils and in the quarterfinals in Miami to Hurkacz before undergoing surgery.Even his successes have been tempered of late. When he rose to No. 1 for the first time on Feb. 28, his breakthrough came as Russia invaded Ukraine, rightly darkening the mood. He stayed on top for only three weeks before Djokovic reclaimed the spot. But the tours’ decision to strip the points from Wimbledon, where Djokovic won the title last year, means that Medvedev is in prime position to return to No. 1 in the coming weeks.Barring a highly unlikely compromise, he will be watching Wimbledon from afar, but for now at least, he is in the Grand Slam arena, in no mood to talk politics but increasingly eager to speak in French and about clay.“I hope the better I speak French, the better I will play,” he said on court, the Roland Garros crowd already “dans la poche” (in the pocket), even if the champions trophy is not. 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

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      Chelsea F.C. Says It Will Sell to Boehly’s U.S.-Led Group

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      Chelsea, the Premier League soccer team whose sale was forced after the Russian oligarch who bankrolled its success was placed under crippling sanctions, will be bought by a consortium led by Todd Boehly, an American billionaire who is a part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the club said on Saturday.The price of 2.5 billion pounds, or $3.1 billion, would be the most ever paid for a team in any sport. The sale, one of the more unusual in modern sports history, still requires the approval of the British government, which imposed the sanctions on the club’s owner, Roman Abramovich, and froze his assets, including Chelsea, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.In a statement posted on its website early Saturday, Chelsea said the proceeds from the sale would be placed into a frozen British bank account, with the intention that all of the funds will eventually go to charitable causes, as Abramovich has promised.In addition to the sale price, Chelsea said, Boehly’s group had pledged to invest 1.75 billion pounds in the club, some of it for much-needed stadium renovations.Boehly’s group is being backed by the American investment firm Clearlake and also includes Hansjorg Wyss, a Swiss businessman, and Mark Walter, an American financier who serves as a co-owner and the chairman of the Dodgers.The decision capped two tumultuous months for Chelsea, its fans and Abramovich, who said on March 2 that he had reluctantly agreed to part with the team, just as Britain’s government was moving to impose restrictions on his fortune and his businesses.The sale process was accelerated once the government formally froze Abramovich’s assets, part of a wider set of sanctions imposed on a group of wealthy Russians with ties to Moscow after the war in Ukraine began. The government has called Abramovich a close ally of Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin.Roman Abramovich has owned Chelsea since 2003.John Sibley/ReutersChelsea has been in a kind of limbo ever since, operating under a special license issued by the government, which comes with strict conditions that have severely affected its business. The team is currently unable to buy or sell players in the summer transfer market, nor can it sell tickets or merchandise to its supporters. Its spending has been severely restricted, affecting everything from the team’s travel to the printing and sale of programs.The restrictions, meant to ensure that no money flows to Abramovich, will only be lifted once the sale is completed.Chelsea, led by Thomas Tuchel, the German coach who secured the Champions League title within months of taking over at Stamford Bridge last year, has endured on-field difficulties as it tries to navigate its new reality. The results have been mixed: While Tuchel’s team currently is in third place in the Premier League, it was eliminated from the lucrative Champions League last month. Several players with expiring contracts have announced that they will leave at the end of the season, and until the sale is completed, Tuchel and the club have no way to replace them.Boehly’s group was given a week to close the deal after being chosen last week as the preferred bidder by the New York-based advisory firm Raine Group and Chelsea’s board members.The sale was nearing a conclusion last week when it seemed to be upended, after one of Britain’s richest men, Jim Ratcliffe, announced a bid that mirrored the offer from Boehly’s consortium, after the deadline had passed. On Wednesday, Ratcliffe, who had emphasized his British credentials when making his offer, said Raine had dismissed his bid but vowed to keep fighting to secure the team.Chelsea’s price tag compares with the £1.8 billion valuation ($2.3 billion) for its London rival Arsenal, in 2018, after its American benefactor, the businessman Stan Kroenke, became the sole owner of the club by buying out the 30 percent stake of another now-sanctioned Russian oligarch, Alisher Usmanov, for more than $700 million. Unlike Chelsea, Arsenal has a modern stadium and its finances have been stable.Britain’s Treasury will have to issue a separate license for the sale to go through, with specific clauses that include a requirement that none of the sale proceeds go to Abramovich.The buyers and Raine have discussed the possibility of the proceeds going to victims of the war in Ukraine, an idea that Abramovich raised when he said he would waive an enormous debt owed to him by the club. But it is unclear how such a transfer would work.Todd Boehly, the American who leads the group that has reached an agreement to buy Chelsea, was at the club’s match against Wolves on Saturday.Justin Tallis/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAbramovich invested nearly $2 billion of his personal funds during his 19-year tenure as owner, during which he covered losses of about $1 million a week as he recruited some of the best players in the world. The strategy was expensive but successful: Chelsea enjoyed the most successful period in its history, becoming a serial contender for domestic and international honors and winning five Premier League and two European Cups.If Boehly’s deal to buy the team goes through with the required approvals from the government and the Premier League, which also has to give its blessing to the sale, his group will have to figure out a way to maintain that successes while paring losses associated with the on-field success and also committing hundreds of millions of dollars to renovating Chelsea’s aging Stamford Bridge stadium, which with a capacity of just over 40,000 is far smaller than the arenas that play host to the Premier League’s biggest teams.Russia-Ukraine War: Key DevelopmentsCard 1 of 4Russia’s punishment of Finland. More

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      Why Brittney Griner Could Be the Last American Basketball Star in Russia

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      The atrocities of the war in Ukraine and Griner’s detention in Russia on drug charges could cut off a lucrative pipeline for women’s basketball players.Mike Cound had decided on a figure — a reasonable salary request, he said — for a client who wanted to play for UMMC Yekaterinburg, a professional women’s basketball team in Russia. As an experienced sports agent, that was what he was supposed to do.But when he doubled the request on a whim, the team accepted without hesitation. And when another client injured her knee and could not play, the team paid her anyway. For yet another client, UMMC Yekaterinburg offered more than triple the amount she could make in the W.N.B.A. in the United States — if she would agree to play only in Russia.None of that was normal. But UMMC Yekaterinburg was not like any other team.“There’s nothing like it in sports,” Cound said. “The Yankees, maybe, in the old days with George Steinbrenner, when they would pay four times as much as somebody else.”That type of spending and largess, fed by the Russian oligarchs who own teams for pride and political reasons, has drawn many W.N.B.A. players over the years to a country they barely know, thousands of miles from home, for a financial bounty generally unavailable in the United States.But those days may be over. Against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, Russia’s detention of the W.N.B.A. star Brittney Griner on drug charges and increasing pressure from the W.N.B.A. to limit overseas play have forced an overdue reconsideration of the ethical and financial implications of playing basketball in Russia.Griner, a center for the Phoenix Mercury who was in Russia to play for UMMC Yekaterinburg when she was detained in February, was reportedly earning at least $1 million from the team — far more than the W.N.B.A.’s maximum base salary of about $230,000. Similar paydays have lured other big-name stars, like Diana Taurasi and Breanna Stewart.UMMC Yekaterinburg celebrated winning the EuroLeague Women in 2021.Murad Sezer/ReutersBut Griner’s detention, the atrocities of the war and related economic sanctions have heightened the scrutiny of associating with Russian businesses — including its basketball teams. The State Department on Tuesday said that Griner had been “wrongfully detained” and that its officials were working to have her released. Griner could be the last American basketball star to play professionally in Russia, fracturing a lucrative pipeline that a list of renowned players has tapped for a generation.“If you’ve got your daughter you’re entrusting with me and listening to my counsel,” Cound said, “I do not see where I can look you in the face and say, ‘Yeah, this is a good idea,’ if Vladimir Putin is still in charge.”‘We can get the best’As the Mercury prepare for the 2022 W.N.B.A. season, which begins Friday, Griner remains in custody with other women in Russia, where she has gone to play basketball since 2015.In February, Russian customs officials accused Griner of carrying vape cartridges with hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. If Griner is convicted, she can face up to 10 years in prison. American officials have long accused Russia of detaining people on trumped-up charges.In March, a Russian court extended Griner’s time in custody until at least May 19. That hearing did not deal with the merits of the case. The State Department has not explained why or how its officials determined that her detention was wrongful.In March, Lisa Leslie, the Hall of Fame player, said on the “I Am Athlete” podcast that she and others in the W.N.B.A. community were told not to make a “big fuss” over Griner’s detention for fear of inflaming tensions with Russia. The State Department’s statement on Tuesday was the most significant public acknowledgment of Griner’s situation by the U.S. government.Some W.N.B.A. players and fans have been vocal, using a #FreeBrittney hashtag on social media to plead for intervention. But most, like Taurasi, Griner’s Mercury teammate, have said little as part of a strategy of quiet diplomacy.A fan showed his support for Griner during a men’s basketball game between Iowa State and Baylor in March. (Griner won a national title with Baylor in 2012.)LM Otero/Associated Press“I spent 10 years there, so I know the way things work,” said Taurasi, who has played for Russian teams and is the leading scorer in W.N.B.A. history. “It’s delicate.”UMMC Yekaterinburg paid Taurasi a reported $1.5 million to skip the 2015 W.N.B.A. season and play only in Russia.“It was a very personal choice,” Taurasi told The New York Times at the time. “My agent said it would be financially irresponsible not to do it.”UMMC Yekaterinburg, based in the city of the same name and roughly a two-hour flight from Moscow, is controlled by the oligarch Iskander Makhmudov and his business partner, Andrei Kozitsyn. Makhmudov and Kozitsyn head Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, which mines commodities like copper, zinc, coal, gold and silver, and is one of Russia’s top producers.They were part of a wave of oligarchs who amassed their wealth after the collapse of the Soviet Union by investing in industries like gas, oil and precious metals. Following Putin’s ascent, oligarchs like Roman Abramovich, Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Prokhorov bought into prominent sports franchises, like the soccer teams Chelsea and Arsenal F.C. and the N.B.A.’s Nets.While some owners had legitimate reasons for investing in sports, others who funded or purchased teams were doing so at least in part to seem more legitimate to American and British authorities, according to Karen Greenaway, a retired F.B.I. agent who investigated international corruption and spent a part of her career in the former Soviet Union. Makhmudov has been linked to criminal activity and has business associations with other oligarchs tied to organized crime in Russia, according to civil suits lodged in the United States and the United Kingdom by competitors and law enforcement officials.Makhmudov was accused of being involved in a scheme to take over the Russian aluminum industry, according to a civil case filed in New York in 2000. In it, Makhmudov and two other oligarchs, Oleg Deripaska and Michael Cherney, were accused of a racketeering scheme which involved fraud, bribery and attempted murder. They contested the allegations, and the case was dismissed in the United States because the judge consented to move it to Russia.“Organized crime was making the money, and Makhmudov and Deripaska were investing the money,” Greenaway said. Several attempts to reach Makhmudov and Kozitsyn for this article were unsuccessful.Proceeds from mining helped Makhmudov and Kozitsyn invest in women’s basketball and other sports in Russia, like martial arts and table tennis.Andrei Kozitsyn at a news conference in 2014.Maxim Shemetov/ReutersAnother former F.B.I. agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity because his current employer had barred him from speaking publicly, said oligarchs want to be associated with high-profile legitimate businesses like sports teams to make it more difficult for Putin to severely punish them without anyone noticing. Making too much money outside Russia could upset Putin, the agent said, as could seeming to interfere with his political agenda. “When oligarchs have stepped into the fray, then he comes after you full guns ablazing,” the agent said.Brendan Dwyer, an associate professor and a director at the Center for Sport Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University, said interest in Russian women’s basketball is related to Putin’s desire that Russia be viewed as a worldwide sports powerhouse.“Really, it’s an opportunity for the oligarchs to draw the best international talent to the country and raise awareness for the sport,” Dwyer said, noting Putin’s background in judo. “But I think the ultimate goal is to showcase: ‘Listen, we have the best athletes in the world. We are the best country in the world. We can get the best to come here.’”‘More than the whole budget of the next team’Yekaterinburg sits on an eastern slope of the Ural Mountains, close to Russia’s border with Kazakhstan, and is a city where the profits of the country’s mining and metallurgical industries pool. The city gained infamy in 1918 when Czar Nicholas II, Russia’s last czar, was killed along with his family by Bolshevik revolutionaries during the Russian Revolution.The Russian Basketball Federation governs several men’s and women’s basketball leagues, including the women’s Premier League with about a dozen teams. UMMC Yekaterinburg has dominated the Premier League, where most of the teams are bankrolled by government municipalities. Makhmudov lists the team on his website among his charitable endeavors.“There’s this vision that this is happening all over Russia,” Cound said. “No, no. It’s this team. You probably have three players on Yekat that’s more than the whole budget of the next team down.”Right before UMMC Yekaterinburg’s run of sustained dominance began in 2008, Taurasi and Sue Bird, two of the world’s most famous women’s basketball players, won several EuroLeague championships for Spartak Moscow. In 2006, the average W.N.B.A. salary was only $47,000 a year, with the league maximum at $91,000 for veterans.In Russia, Bird and Taurasi were treated like celebrities. Shabtai Kalmanovich, Spartak Moscow’s owner, lavished players with high salaries, cash bonuses and gifts.Iskander Makhmudov, the president of Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, in 2014.Dmitry Dukhanin/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesKalmanovich once told ESPN that he lost millions every season. The team paid to have its games broadcast in Russia and did not charge fans to attend, hoping to first get spectators invested in the sport before charging admission.He told Sports Illustrated in 2008 that “you need to have a big heart” and to “be something between a fanatic and a patriot” to invest in women’s basketball. But for the very rich, like Kalmanovich, that was often enough incentive.“If you understand that you can’t eat breakfast twice, and you can wear only one tie at a time, there might as well be something else,” he said.What to Know About Brittney Griner’s Detention in RussiaCard 1 of 5What happened? More

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      Russia Is Barred From Women’s Euros and 2023 World Cup

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      Russian soccer teams and clubs were barred from all European competitions, including the Champions League, for the 2022-23 season.Russia was ejected from this summer’s European women’s soccer championship and barred from qualifying for the 2023 Women’s World Cup on Monday, deepening a sporting isolation that resulted from the country’s invasion of Ukraine.UEFA, the governing body for soccer in Europe, announced its decisions Monday. In addition to barring Russia’s team from the two biggest competitions in women’s soccer, the governing body said it had suspended all Russian national teams and clubs from UEFA competitions until further notice.Russian clubs were also barred from all UEFA competitions — including the Champions League, the richest club competition in soccer — for the 2022-23 season.Russia will not participate in this summer’s UEFA Women’s EURO 2022. Portugal, the opponent defeated by Russia in the qualifying play-offs, will now participate in Group C.Additionally, Russian teams will not participate in UEFA club competitions next season.More info: ⬇️— UEFA (@UEFA) May 2, 2022
      The punishments had previously been applied most prominently to Russian men’s teams, tossing Russia out of qualifying for this year’s World Cup in Qatar when it needed only two more wins to earn a place in the field and ejecting a Russian club, Spartak Moscow, from the knockout rounds of the Europa League.Russia’s women had missed two World Cup qualifiers in April as a result of the earlier ban on its teams, but UEFA had postponed a decision on its participation at the women’s Euros, which open in July in England. Now, with the event approaching and many countries on record saying they would not play against a Russian team, it was left with little choice.Portugal will replace Russia at the European Championship, taking its place in a group that includes two of the tournament favorites — the Netherlands and Sweden — as well as Switzerland. Russia had defeated Portugal in a playoff to qualify for the event.Several international sports leagues and organizations have dropped Russia and Russian athletes from competition since the country’s invasion of Ukraine in February, in sports as varied as tennis, soccer, auto racing and track and field. Last week, Russia was stripped of the hosting rights for next year’s world ice hockey championships.Russia has vowed to fight some of the punishment against its teams and athletes at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland, the body responsible for adjudicating disputes in sports. (It has nearly a dozen complaints filed with the court already.) And not everyone has agreed with blanket bans on Russian athletes.After Wimbledon, under pressure from the British government, confirmed that it would not allow Russian and Belarusian players to participate in the grass-court tennis tournament this summer, the governing bodies for the men’s and women’s tours both expressed concern about the decision.The ATP, which runs the men’s tour, called it “unfair” and said it had “the potential to set a damaging precedent for the game.”The WTA, which oversees the women’s tour, said: “Individual athletes should not be penalized or prevented from competing due to where they are from or the decisions made by the governments of their countries. Discrimination, and the decision to focus such discrimination against athletes competing on their own as individuals, is neither fair nor justified.”On Sunday, the top men’s players Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal added their voices to the criticism.“It’s not their fault what’s happening in this moment with the war,” Nadal, a 21-time Grand Slam winner, said in Spain, calling some of the affected players “my Russian teammates, my colleagues.”“I’m sorry for them,” Nadal said. “Wimbledon just took their decision. The government didn’t force them to do it.” More