Wimbledon organizers on Tuesday announced their intention to provide supplementary financial aid to Ukrainian players and associated initiatives in the wake of the rescission of the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes at the forthcoming competition.
The All England Club, which runs Wimbledon, announced last month that the ban imposed in the previous year would not continue after they were stripped of ranking points and punished by the WTA and ATP with hefty fines.
Competitors from the two nations will be able to enter the Grand Slam, which starts on July 3, as "neutral" athletes if they comply with certain conditions, including a ban on expressing support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
At a news conference to announce plans for the 2023 tournament, organizers revealed that 1 pound ($1.25) from every ticket sold – expected to be more than 500,000 pounds in total – will be donated to Ukrainian relief.
Funding will be provided for a day at the tournament for 1,000 Ukrainian refugees.
Two hotel rooms per Ukrainian player will also be offered free of charge and training facilities for the summer grass-court season.
Russian and Belarusian players have been able to compete on the men's and women's tours as neutrals, including at the other Grand Slams.
Russians Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev are ranked in the top six of the men's game. At the same time, Belarusian women's world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka won the Australian Open earlier this year.
"Our announcement was made last month after careful and deep consideration," said All England Club Chairman Ian Hewitt.
"At the time, we set out the factors which informed our decision and why, taking all circumstances into account, we consider these to be the appropriate arrangements for Wimbledon this year.
"It was a difficult and challenging decision, which was made with the full support of our U.K. government and the international stakeholder bodies in tennis, but does not lessen in any way our total condemnation of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine."
