Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, runner-up at Wimbledon 2014, announced that she would not participate in the third Grand Slam tennis tournament this year, after the decision of the WTA to suspend the allocation of points in the world rankings in response to the decision of the grass tournament organizers banned the participation of Russians and Belarusians because of the war in Ukraine.

Professional associations ATP and WTA in May decided to suspend the distribution of ranking points at Wimbledon in response to the controversial decision of the organizers of the championship of England.

Bouchard, 28, who was out of action after a Mexican tournament in Guadalajara in May 2021 when she injured her shoulder, has been given a wild card to play at Wimbledon.

The former world No. 5 explained on her social media accounts: “Due to my shoulder surgery, I have a limited number of entries to the protected half. a tournament without points is meaningless.”

She continued, “I have to choose my protected participation wisely and choose courses that will help me get back to where I want to be.”

Bouchard expected to return to the court this summer to play in major tournaments at Flushing Meadows (August 29-September 11) and the Australian Open early next year.

The imposition of the Wimbledon ban on Russian and Belarusian players means the absence of many ranked players, such as Russian Daniil Medvedev, world number one, Andrey Rublev and Belarus, Arina Sobolenko, world number five.

The professional league previously considered the decision of the English championship “unfair”, while the WTA regarded it as a “form of discrimination”, expressing “great disappointment”.

Championship organizers reacted to these “disproportionate” decisions by the two associations by expressing “deep disappointment” in a statement. The All England Club felt that the deprivation of ranking points from the tournament was “disproportionate in the context of the exceptional and dire circumstances of this situation”.

Many people condemned Wimbledon’s decision, most notably former world number one Novak Djokovic, who called it “crazy”, while Rublev, world number eight, called it “discriminatory”.