They started beating the Americans! “Cancellation” of Russia has reached the level of “Comedy Club”

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Russian tennis players at the French Open perform in a neutral status, but the producers of the official television picture of the tournament decided to go even further and “deprive” those who were born in our country but represent other flags of their place of birth. Sport correspondent – about a new round of “cancellation” of Russia in Europe, which has taken on a cosmically stupid scale.

As you know, in tennis, the governing international structures have shown themselves to be as adequate as possible after February 2022. No one there began to listen to any recommendations of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and in principle there was no talk of removing Russian players. Yes, formally they were transferred to the status of neutral, but in practice this was expressed only in a dash next to their name in the world ranking on the website. Country, place of birth, biographical details related to Russia – all this has not disappeared on official resources. And at tournaments, the scoreboard does not always show at least something other than the names of the players and the score.

Moreover, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) reacted extremely harshly when the organizers of Wimbledon in 2022 did not allow Russians to participate in their competitions. They deprived the oldest tournament in the world of the right to award ranking points, which is why it turned from a dream of all tennis players into an exhibition performance. The lesson was learned: the following year, the British no longer thought about discrimination based on nationality.

Thanks to all this, tennis all this time looked like a kind of island of prudence against the backdrop of an orgy of anti-Russian sanctions taken in most sports – and in other humanitarian areas not related to politics. While in Europe, here and there, competitions where Russian athletes could come, and concerts where works of Russian composers could be performed were canceled, Russian tennis players, who were always in the French capital, continued to play on the same famous Roland Garros courts. received very warmly. Just remember the ovation for Elena Dementieva, who spoke to the public in French, or Marat Safin, who brought people into ecstasy with his extravagant antics.

Ours are playing at Roland Garros this year too – and, moreover, they are not in the last roles. Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev are among the contenders for victory. Yes, the word “Russia” next to the names of Russians is not on the official website of the tournament, but all the other necessary information is present, including the city and country of birth. From which, in fact, it becomes clear to anyone where this tennis player is from.

But someone in the French Open organizing committee apparently did not like this state of affairs. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain the following fact: in the official television picture from the tournament, in the credits during the introduction of the players, information about their place of birth, if it is a city in Russia, is missing. And not only for the “neutrals” – but also for those who were born in our country, but play for other countries. For example, the place of birth (Moscow) is not indicated for the American Sofia Kenin, for Yulia Putintseva from Kazakhstan, for Varvara Gracheva from France…

You can also understand if the place of birth is not indicated in the credits, for example, Medvedev or Rublev. Understand, but in no case accept: not a single explanation of the IOC and international federations regarding the application of neutral status prohibits telling people where the athlete was born. We are talking about the flag, the anthem, other symbols – and nothing more. But when the birthplace of a Kazakh, French, or American athlete is “cancelled” just because it is Russia, it’s hard to call it anything other than idiocy on a universal scale.

In general, it must be said that in the last two years, Roland Garros not only did not show such zealous initiatives to abolish everything connected with Russia, but even in some places it did not approach the implementation of anti-Russian sanctions as carefully as elsewhere. For example, on the official website of the tournament in 2022, in printed versions of the tournament brackets, next to the names of players from Russia and Belarus, as always, there were abbreviations of the corresponding countries. But for this, the Roland Garros organizing committee, apparently, received a serious blow – and now they are reinsuring themselves to the level of the grotesque from the Comedy Club.

In this situation, it is interesting how those same foreign players will behave (ours, alas, in all likelihood, will not get into the bottle), who, by the will of the producers of the official television picture, were left without their place of birth – they will remain silent or demand that it be returned to them. At the time of publication of the material, the International Tennis Federation and the organizing committee of the French Open did not respond to a request for reasons for canceling the place of birth associated with Russia for absolutely all tennis players, regardless of flag.

Well, all that remains is to state that anti-Russian actions in France reached a cosmic level of stupidity less than two months before the start of the Olympic Games in Paris. Tennis competitions will be held on the same courts at Roland Garros. What else will they come up with so that there is as little Russia as possible around – will they force our players to perform not only without a flag, an anthem and mention of their place of birth, but also without a first name? Judging by what we are seeing now, this option cannot be ruled out.