UK: 18+ USA: 21+ | Begambleaware.org | T&Cs apply | Play Responsibly
The world number 2 and by far the most impressive female player on the Tour this year Aryna Sabalenka revealed in a recent Instagram Q&A session with her fans that she has problems obtaining a visa to enter the UK. Answering a question if she is excited to get back to Wimbledon after all Russian and Belarusian players were banned to play in 2022 Sabalenka answered: “Still didn’t get my visa to be approved…”
Where that leaves the women’s best tennis player this year and the 2021 Wimbledon semi-finalists? Could she be forced to miss her second Wimbledon in a row due to being denied entry to the UK? Let’s see what we know right now.
Could Aryna Sabalenka be denied entry to the UK for Wimbledon?
Sabalenka’s own admission that she has problems obtaining a UK visa leaves the wider tennis community and her fans in suspense as to if she will be allowed to play at Wimbledon. As Sabalenka didn’t make it clear in her comment if her visa application was outright rejected or just delayed, so we know very little in fact. The UK Government are refusing to comment.
However, with the current geopolitical map of Europe, it won’t be a surprise if the UK Government mixes sport and politics and has rejected Sabalenka’s visa for the pure reason that she is a Belarusian. This won’t surprise anyone considering the far-right nature of the current UK Government and the fact that the UK Home Office is currently defending itself at the International Court for Human Rights on 17 different lawsuits against them for breaking the laws.
There is still time for Sabalenka to obtain at least a short-term visa and play at Wimbledon. In any case, the wider community seems ready to erupt in outrage if she is denied the right to play in the UK for political reasons.
actually if the uk is denying or delaying sabalenka's visa then that's genuinely so nasty
— elena rybaKINO (@slaymilagiorgi) May 15, 2023
We sincerely hope that this matter will get resolved soon and Aryna Sabalenka will be given the right, just like every other player, to travel to Wimbledon and compete for the title. Sabalenka surely deserves that and our hope is that cool heads will preview eventually and stop mixing sports with politics.
Sabalenka is the best player on the WTA Tour so far this year. What has she won already in 2023?
Aryna Sabalenka has been almost unplayable this season. She started the year with back-to-back titles. First, she won the Adelaide International and then in emphatic style, she lifted her first-ever Grand Slam title when going all the way in Melbourne to claim the 2023 Australian Open.
Sabalenka gained huge confidence from that and she hasn’t missed to make at least the quarterfinals of any tournament she’s entered this calendar year. She lost the finals in Indian Wells and Stuttgart, but in a perfect warm-up for the looming Roland Garros Sabalenka won the title in the recently finished Mutua Madrid Masters after beating the world number 1 Iga Swiatek in the final.
Sabalenka has hardly shown any dips in form so far this season and it will be a huge blow to the wider fan base of female tennis if she can’t play at Wimbledon. We hope it won’t get to that.
Subscribe to Punditfeed on Google News for all the latest updates from the world of sports!
