Russian Dzalamidze switches nationality to play Wimbledon

IMAGE: Natela Dzalamidze in motion in the course of the lately concluded French Open Championship at Rolland Garros. {Photograph}: Form Courtesy Natela Dzalamidze/Instagram

Moscow-born Natela Dzalamidze will be capable to compete at Wimbledon regardless of a ban on Russian and Belarusian gamers at this yr’s championships after she modified her nationality to symbolize Georgia.

The 29-year-old is listed as being from Georgia in Wimbledon’s entry listing for the ladies’s doubles, the place she is about to associate Serbian Aleksandra Krunic. Her nationality is Georgian on the WTA Tour’s web site.

In April, the All England Garden Tennis Membership (AELTC) banned Russian and Belarusian gamers from competing at Wimbledon because of the invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “particular army operation”. Belarus has been a key staging space for the invasion.

The AELTC mentioned it has no involvement in gamers’ change of nationality.

“Participant nationality, outlined because the flag they play beneath at skilled occasions, is an agreed course of that’s ruled by the excursions and the ITF,” a spokesperson for the AELTC instructed Reuters in an e-mail.

The WTA and ITF didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

The grasscourt Grand Slam, which begins on June 27, has been stripped of its rating factors by the ATP and WTA Excursions over its determination to exclude gamers from Russia and Belarus.

Earlier this month, the US Tennis Affiliation mentioned Russian and Belarusian gamers can be allowed to compete on the U.S. Open this yr beneath a impartial flag.