Felt sorry for Andrey Rublev, Daniil Medvedev last year: Casper Ruud

Casper Ruud has revealed that he felt sorry for players like Andrey Rublev, Daniil Medvedev, and Karen Khachanov after they were barred from competing at the 2022 Wimbledon championships.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) banned Russian and Belarusian players from last year's grass Slam. As a result, the ATP and WTA stripped the event of the ranking points and imposed a £1.4 million fine on the club.

A few days ago, the AELTC stated that while it continued to condemn the ongoing war, it was overturning its decision and allowing Russians and Belarusians to return as neutral athletes for this year's edition in July.

Speaking on Eurosport's 'Ruud Talk', fifth-ranked Ruud said that he was delighted with Wimbledon's decision as he felt that the players were not at fault.

"Last year, I felt sorry for the guys," he said. "They have nothing to do with this, it's not their fault where they were born. Daniil, Karen, Andrey, and everyone, they made their careers outside of Russia. They travel the world and they cannot do anything with where they were born and they cannot change their residence in one day."

"I felt sorry for them last year, as a colleague and an opponent, that they couldn't play," he added. "It's one of the biggest and most historical tournaments that we have. It feels sort of fair and nice that they get to play again. Obviously, it's not good what's happening. But I think it was fair, these guys have done nothing wrong, in my opinion. They have agreed to play without a flag, what more can they do?"

Ruud lauded Andrey Rublev for being vocal about his anti-war stance. On two different occasions last year, Rublev wrote "No War Please" and "Peace, Peace, Peace, All We Need" on camera lenses after winning his matches.

"Andrey, in the beginning, was very, very loud being against the war. There's not really much more you can ask from these guys," he concluded.

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Earlier this year, Andrey Rublev said that Wimbledon ban doesn't help anyone

2023 Australian Open

Ahead of the 2023 Australian Open, Andrey Rublev expressed his wish to return to Wimbledon this year, saying that banning players only resulted in tennis bodies fighting each other.

"We’ll see, I mean me personally, I don’t know anything," Rublev opined. “But hopefully, hopefully we’ll be able to play. I hope as the previous year shows, it makes no difference. If we’re going to be banned one more year it will not make any difference either."

“[It’s like] inside tennis, we’re starting to do something wrong, like fighting between the ATP, ITF [and other bodies] because of those things," he added.

The sixth-ranked Russian will be seen in action next at the 2023 Monte-Carlo Masters, where he is the fifth seed.