London – Mischa Zverev has also criticised the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian tennis pros from this year’s Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon.
“I can’t judge this decision from a political point of view, but from a sporting perspective it is unfair and wrong,” the older brother (34) of top German player Alexander Zverev told Der Spiegel.
Tennis players on the tour are a big community, he said. “But now we are excluding parts of this community. This will not bring anything positive and the vast majority of players are against it,” said the former top-30 player. Mischa Zverev was born in Moscow before moving to Germany with his parents as a small child. He himself has a Ukrainian nanny. As his brother’s manager, he works with the Ukrainian Sergej Bubka junior.
His brother Alexander, himself and his family are shocked by the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine. “Our whole family is suffering with the people in Ukraine,” Mischa Zverev said, but because of that the professionals should not be held in kinship. “I don’t know a single player who is in favour of this war. But still, they are being punished now.”
In response to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, Wimbledon organisers had announced that professionals from Russia and Belarus would not be allowed to play in the grass-court classic from 27 June to 10 July. Among those affected are world number two Daniil Medvedev from Russia and world number four Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus.