Russia & Belarus Barred From Davis Cup & BJK Cup, Individual Tennis Players Allowed To Compete With No Country Affiliation

deadline.com:

Following the IOC, FIFA  and other major professional sports leagues, the international governing bodies of tennis, ATP, WTA and ITF, on Tuesday morning issued a statement addressing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which has been aided by Belarus.Condemning the violence and calling “for peace to return,” the ITF Board “has made the decision to suspend the Russian Tennis Federation and Belarus Tennis Federation membership and to withdraw their entries from all ITF international team competition until further notice.”Those include the men’s Davis Cup and women’s Billie Jean King Cup, for both of which the Russian Tennis Federation is the reigning champion.Meanwhile, “players from Russia and Belarus will continue to be allowed to compete in international tennis events on Tour and at the Grand Slams.

However, they will not compete under the name or flag of Russia or Belarus until further notice.”The tennis organizations also are cancelling the ATP/WTA Moscow event that had been scheduled for October.Today’s announcement follows an appeal by the world’s highest-ranked Ukrainian tennis player, Elina Svitolina, who yesterday announced that due to the Russian invasion of her country, she would not play a “match against Russian or Belarussian [sic] tennis players until our organizations take this necessary decision.”She called for the ATP, WTA and ITF to treat Russian players as the IOC does, as “neutral athletes, without displaying any national symbols, colours, flags or anthems.”The announcement also follows the big celebration by the ATP yesterday of Russian Daniil Medvedev becoming the first non-Big 4 tennis player in 18 years to reach No.1, which was under a cloud because of Russia’s invasion.It also comes as the top male and