The U.S. Open will not follow Wimbledon by barring Russian and Belarusian players from this year’s tennis tournament.
The United States Tennis Association, which owns and operates the U.S. Open, announced the decision on Tuesday after a recent meeting of its board of directors. The move leaves Wimbledon as the only Grand Slam tournament to bar Russians and Belarusians in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.
“This horrible atrocity absolutely weighed on all of us,” said Lew Sherr, the Association’s new chief executive, referring to the war in Ukraine. “But I think at the end of the day we chose not to hold the individual athletes accountable for the decisions of their respective governments.”
Russian and Belarusian players will compete in the U.S. Open, which will begin Aug. 29, under a neutral flag, just as they have been competing on tour and at the recently concluded French Open.
