Russian Dzalamidze has changed sides to play at Wimbledon

The 2022 edition of Wimbledon will see several notable absentees, including, for example, the Russian Daniil Medvedev, world number one, and the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, sixth in the women’s ranking. They will not be able to play the British Grand Slam due to the decision of the All England Club ban players from participating in the sanctions imposed on those two countries for the invasion of Ukraine. But there will be a Russian tennis player who will claim to be present at the London tournament, even if she will do so under a different banner.

is approx Natela Dzalamidzeborn 29 years ago in Moscow and number 43 in the WTA doubles ranking, which has decided to start representing Georgia in order not to lose the third Major of the season, where she will play the doubles draw together with the Serbian Alessandra Krunic.

Dzalamidze, who has already played twice in Wimbledon doubles (reached the second round in 2017 and fell on his debut in 2019), has not changed nationality. As he explained to the agency EFE Alexandr Metreveli, president of the Georgian Tennis Federation, was already dual national and had long since obtained a Georgian passport. “That is to say, she changed the flag, not citizenship. He made a conscientious decision,” Metreveli stressed.

He added: “This is good news for Georgia, for its sport and for the spread of tennis across the country.”

According to the British newspaper TimesAELTC confirmed that Dzalamidze has met all the requirements to participate in the tournament as a Georgian.

“The nationality of the players, defined as the flag they compete with in professional events, is an agreed process regulated by the ATP and the WTA and the International Tennis Federation (ITF),” explained a spokesman for the London club. that means.

For this reason, the English Grand Slam had no reason not to register the tennis player under its new flag, with which she already appears today in the women’s world ranking.

Dzalamidze, WTA 250 doubles champion in Linz and Linz Open and Cluj-Napoca in 2021, played her last tournament as a Russian representative a few weeks ago. She was at Roland Garros, where she paired with her compatriot Kamila Rachimovalost on debut against the Australian Storm Sanders and the American Caroline Dolehide. But he did so under a neutral flag, as the French tournament adopted the decision made by the ATP, WTA and ITF to allow the participation of Russians and Belarusians, even if only as independent athletes.

Wimbledon, however, has imposed a tougher penalty. After the British government advised him to require players of those nationalities to make a public anti-war statement in order to play, he chose to exclude them from the 2022 edition.

“It would be unacceptable for the Russian regime to take advantage of the participation of Russian or Belarusian players in the leagues,” the AELTC explained in a statement, also noting that asking players to sign such a declaration could put them at risk. their families.

The ATP and the WTA, in disagreement with this provision, have responded strongly: they have subtracted from the tournament the points it distributes for the ranking.

“Our Russian and Belarusian players should not be penalized with exclusion from tournaments due to authoritarian leadership,” he said. steve simonepresident of the WTA, in an interview with BBC.

the French newspaper L’Equipe He assured in a publication in late April that a group of Russian and Belarusian racketeers were analyzing “the initiation of legal action” against the British Grand Slam for a veto. Although there was no more news on the matter afterwards and Medvedev, the best Russian player of today, assured a few weeks ago that “he would not go to court for this”.

Meanwhile, Dzalamidze has opted for a different path, finding a way to circumvent that ban by adopting the flag of the country where his family has roots and will have the pleasure of playing next week on one of the most important stages in world tennis.