The Lawn Tennis Association believes it faces an “existential threat” if the ban on Russian and Belarusian players continues and it is stripped of its prestigious pre-Wimbledon events such as Queen’s Club and Edgbaston.
While talks with the government and tennis continue – with a decision expected by early April – the LTA believes the threat from the ATP and WTA to suspend it from staging events if the ban remains is serious and could cause major damage to British tennis.
An LTA insider said “the organisation faces an existential threat if the grass court events aren’t staged”, before pointing to the harm it would cause to the sport’s finances, visibility, efforts to grow the game and popularity.
As the funding body for British tennis, the LTA provides substantial support for the grassroots as well as funding for elite players, such as Emma Raducanu, as they progress from talented teenagers to the top of the sport.
However, losing the rights to stage tournaments such as Queen’s Club and Edgbaston, which are watched by 180,000 spectators every year, would leave it facing a £20m reduction in its finances and major decisions about what services to cut.
In 2019, the last year before the pandemic, the LTA made £14.6m from ticket sales and more than £6m in commercial revenue. That amounted to nearly 30% of its income, most of which it pumped back into the sport.
But the issue is not just financial: there are also concerns that fewer grass court tournaments will reduce tennis’s visibility in the UK to just Wimbledon, which is run by the All England Club not the LTA.
It will also limit opportunities for British players to receive wild cards. That was something from which Raducanu benefited before her shock US Open victory in 2021.
Last year Wimbledon and the LTA barred players from Russia and Belarus from playing in British grass events, which led to the former being stripped of ranking points.
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The All England Club’s decision, which was prompted by the invasion of Ukraine and fears of the optics of the Duchess of Cambridge having to present a trophy to a player from Russia or Belarus, was condemned by the Russian Andrey Rublev, who called it “complete discrimination”.
However several Ukrainian players, including Elina Svitolina, Marta Kostyuk and Sergiy Stakhovsky, backed the move and called on their counterparts from Russia and Belarus to denounce their government if they wanted to compete at international level.
