Hello, folks. David here. We have a new tennis podcast for you, but it does not include

coverage of the news that has just broken moments ago of Wimbledon and the British grass

court tournaments in the UK, permitting Russian and Belarusian players to compete in their

events in 2023, unlike last year. As is so often the case, we recorded the show and then

this news dropped. So we haven't been able to include it, but I did want to put a covering

note on this show to say that we will come back to that news in the next show following

the Miami tournament, but I wanted to give you what we understand at the moment ahead

of this show because it is so significant. If you consider a year ago, it was nearly a

year ago that Wimbledon put out a statement saying that given the profile of the championships

in the United Kingdom and around the world, it is our responsibility to play our part

in the widespread efforts of government industry, sporting and creative institutions to limit

Russia's global influence through the strongest possible means, this in response to the invasion

of Ukraine. Wimbledon went on to say at that time that in the circumstances of such unjustified

and unprecedented military aggression, it would be unacceptable for the Russian regime to

derive any benefits from the involvement of Russian or Belarusian players with the championships.

It is therefore our intention with deep regret to decline entries from Russian and Belarusian

players to the championships in 2022. That is of course what ended up happening at the time in

here at the chairman of the Olingland Club said that given the high profile environment of the

championships, the importance of not allowing sports to be used to promote the Russian regime

and our broader concerns for public and player, including family safety, we do not believe

it is viable to proceed on any other basis at the championships. If circumstances change

materially between now and June, he said back in April of 2022, we will consider and respond

...