Opinion Wimbledon will sorely miss star players – including and especially Federer

Wimbledon 2022 isn’t like its previous editions. As the most eagerly awaited tennis major opened to a diluted draw and several low-key first-round matches, the impact of its vulnerability to geopolitics hit home. In April, in what was seen as an over-reaction in many quarters, the most celebrated tennis tournament banned Russian and Belarusian players because of the war in Ukraine. The move did not go down well with the tennis fraternity, creating further divisions in an already fractured sport. The All England Club’s decision — not followed by any other event around the globe — has kept out men’s No 1 Daniil Medvedev, No 8 Andrey Rublev, and three of the women’s top 20 — Aryna Sabalenka, Daria Kasatkina and Victoria Azarenka from the well-manicured grass courts.

Global tennis bodies — ATP and WTA — haven’t remained silent. They have stripped Wimbledon of ranking points in the strongest rebuke of an event in recent history. The biggest victim of these unfortunate circumstances is one of the game’s superstars, Serbian Novak Djokovic, in line to become only the fourth men’s player (after Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras and Roger Federer) to win a fourth consecutive Wimbledon title. Because of the complex ranking calculations, and the ATP decision, Djokovic is sure to lose his place in the Top 5 even if he wins here. Joining Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the GOAT race, Djokovic wouldn’t mind exchanging points for the trophy but not everyone is on the same page as him. Multiple Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka considers the oldest Grand Slam tournament “more like an exhibition” minus ranking points.

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The other regular feature missing at Wimbledon this year will be Federer, whose blend of elegant and powerful tennis came to define the tournament for the better part of two decades. The junior singles champion in 1998, Federer has played in every main draw event in the 22 years since. He misses out due to an injury. It’s too much of a change for this ancient venue steeped in customs to take.

This editorial first appeared in the print edition on June 28, 2022 under the title ‘A paler Wimbledon’.