The order has created strains in the locker rooms and other common areas at tournaments. Players from Ukraine, such as Yastremska and Lesia Tsurenko, have spoken out about their discomfort at being around Russian and Belarusian players, some of whom they believe support Russian President Vladimir V. Putin.
“We know how popular he is in their country,” Tsurenko said of Putin earlier this year.
Then, in April, the UK Parliament ordered the All England Club, which organizes Wimbledon, and the Lawn Tennis Association, which oversees several other tournaments in the UK, to allow players from Russia and Belarus to compete in the June and June grass events there ban July. The club and association followed suit, prompting the tennis tours to withhold ranking points from Wimbledon and threaten penalties against the other tournaments.
Russian players expressed frustration. The tournament continued without them, including Medvedev, now the world’s top men’s singles player.
As Russia stepped up its siege of eastern Ukraine, in an even more complex twist, Elena Rybakina, who was born and raised in Russia, won the women’s singles Wimbledon championship. Rybakina started representing Kazakhstan four years ago after the former Soviet republic offered to fund their development, stressing how fruitless it is to exclude players based on their nationality. Like all players from Russia and Belarus whose families still live in those countries, Rybakina avoided any discussion about the war.
Rublev, Kasatkina and other top Russians and Belarusians including Azarenka all played in tournaments in the United States last week.
As in the spring, their games have been largely uneventful, and players have largely confined their post-game comments to tennis, dodging questions about the victims of the invasion or their feelings towards their countries’ leaders.