Wimbledon visa chaos as Russian and Belarusian stars struggle to secure UK entry

Russian and Belarusian players like teen star Mirra Andreeva fear missing Wimbledon next month because of long delays in issuing UK visas. Stars like Daniil Medvedev and Aryna Sabalenka were banned last year following the invasion of Ukraine.

After huge fines, the All England Club decided to allow players from the two nations to compete at The Championships as long as they compete as neutral athletes and not make “supportive comments” about the war or either of the two regimes. Nineteen

Russian and Belarusian players have signed declarations and will enter the main draw. But world No.2 Sabalenka revealed last month that her visa had yet to be approved.

And 16-year-old Russian Andreeva, who reached the third round on her Grand Slam debut in Paris, admitted she is not yet sure if she will be allowed into the UK to play the Wimbledon.

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UK Visit Visas are taking at least six weeks to process while the Home Office is undertaking extra security checks on Russians and Belarusians. Even the usual five-day turnaround for priority processing is taking longer for players from the two countries.

Andreeva, who is set to enter the top 100 but too late to gain automatic entry into Wimbledon, said: “I’m still limited in tournaments, so my next tournament has to be Wimbledon. But I don’t get my visa yet, so we will see if I can participate in Wimbledon or not. But if not, we will just choose the tournaments and I will just maybe play some ITFs. I don’t know yet.”

Some Russian and Belarusian players have EU passports to enable them to travel easier. And Belarusian world No.73 Ilya Ivashka is playing in the Lexus Surbiton Trophy from Monday.

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After losing to Sabalenka in the first round, Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk expressed her frustration at Russian and Belarusian players being able to play on the WTA Tour and Grand Slams while the war rages in her homeland.

“I just hope that someone like the U.K., for example, will just not grant visas and they will not be able to enter the country, and they will not play,” Kostyuk said. “As of now I think this is the only reasonable idea.”

In March, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba branded Wimbledon’s decision to allow Russian and Belarusian players to compete as “immoral”.

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