50 Years to Wimbledon’s Biggest Controversy as Tennis Legends Arthur Ashe, Ken Rosewall, and Others Boycotted the Event to Support Their Croatian Peer

With just seven days to go, the buzz around the grandest event in the tennis calendar can be felt. Wimbledon is upon us. The most prestigious slam is set to commence on 3rd July, the coming Monday. The qualifiers are already underway and the main draw is set to take place on Friday, 30th June. Amidst all the excitement, let’s not forget that today also marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most controversial events in tennis history which took place at Wimbledon.

On the eve of 1973 Wimbledon’s main draw, the players decided to boycott the tournament which led to a major controversy in the tennis world. The newly formed Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) came up with the decision to stand by a fellow professional. But what was the reason behind it?

ATP’s boycott Wimbledon movement in 1973

Yugoslavian player Nikola Pilic faced a ban from the International Tennis Federation for not participating in a Davis Cup tie. The ban also clashed with Wimbledon. Tennis historian Richard Evans said via Yahoo, “It was the classic situation of an amateur federation president demanding a player play Davis Cup when that player, who was a professional, had already signed a contract to appear in a doubles tournament in Montreal.”

The ATP union comprised yesteryear legends like Arthur Ashe, Rod Laver, Stan Smith and Ken Rosewall. They held a meeting the night before Wimbledon’s main draw and came up with the decision the next morning. The authorities were certain that the players would continue. However, the ATP union stunned the world. They backed out from the tournament, forcing a remake of the draw as 81 seeds boycotted the tournament.

READ MORE: All You Need to Know About the Schedule of the Glorious Wimbledon Championships

Similarly, last year, Wimbledon banned all Russian and Belarusian players from competing due to the Ukraine war. The ATP and WTA responded by docking all Wimbledon points for the year 2022.

Did the ATP and WTA do the right thing by docking Wimbledon points?

It was some sort of compensation towards the banned players from the associations. The players missed out on the opportunity from competing in the biggest event, but they did not lose any ranking points. While the banned players managed to protect their rankings, certain players lost their ranking despite winning the event. Novak Djokovic defended his title in 2022 but ended up losing 2000 points from the previous year and thereby falling down in the rankings.

The rigid decisions from the ATP/WTA and Wimbledon saw no winners. However, by docking points, the tennis associations did the right thing to protect the banned players.

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