Roberto Bautista Agut and Pablo Carreno Busta Criticize ITF’s Decision of Banning Russia From the Tour

Spanish Davis Cup team players Roberto Bautista Agut and Pablo Carreno Busta, criticized the International Tennis Federation’s decision of excluding Russia and Belarus from all the international events. The two criticized ITF in a press conference held before Spain’s first tie of the 2022 Davis Cup.
Seeing the ongoing tensions between Ukraine and Russia. International governing bodies of tennis, ITF, ATP, WTA, Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open unanimously released a press release yesterday on the matter. As per the press release, the federation has banned Russia and Belarus from playing in any of the international events till further notice.

Spanish team on the international body’s decision

During a press conference before the scheduled Davis Cup tie; The two team members of the Spanish Davis Cup team went all out criticizing the ITF’s decision. The ITF has excluded the Russian and the Belarusian team to participate in any of the international tournaments till further notice.

World No. 15 and a prominent member of the Spanish Davis team, Roberto Bautista Agut, censured the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. But on the other hand, he also criticized the governing body’s decision to make the situation affect the game. “What is happening is not good, but it is not fair that it affects them when it comes to playing,” he said.

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Bautista Agut was joined by his fellow team member, World No. 16 Pablo Carreno Busta. The 30-year-old Spaniard came to the support of the Russian players.“Rublev, Mezvedev (number one in the world) and other Russian tennis players have shown that they “do not support” Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.”

There has been a huge amount of materialistic and non-materialistic loss since the start of this tension. Taking that into consideration, Carreno Busta felt that this decision of banning players from playing for their country is hardly going to make any difference to the situation right now. “All decisions, whether fair or unfair, are going to be little for what they are suffering in Ukraine,” he said.

(Quotes translated using Google Translator)

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Even though the two players did not shy away from criticizing the bodies. The Spanish team captain Sergi Bruguera refrained from commenting on the matter. He let go of the question by claiming not to be the right person to know.