The ban on Russian and Belarusian tennis players from playing at Wimbledon has raised a lot of dust, the third Grand Slam of the season will be played only for prestige and trophy, points on the ATP list will not be entered. Many players did not agree with this decision of the leaders of the competition on the Island, but there was no boycott.
And if we go back almost 50 years, we come to the data when Nikola Pilić was the main reason for the boycott of tennis players at Wimbledon in 1973.
That year, the Yugoslav Tennis Federation, explaining that Pilic refused to play for the Davis Cup national team, decided to suspend him from all competitions, which the ATP leaders accepted, so Novak Djokovic’s tennis father was banned from playing around the world.
When it was found out, as many as 81 tennis players decided to skip Wimbledon out of solidarity with the famous ace, so in the end, Jan Kodeš lifted the title.
Two Englishmen, who did not even know how to play tennis, reached the third round. Kodesh would also cancel the tournament, but he did not dare, he came from Czechoslovakia, and it, like other socialist countries, was in solidarity with Yugoslavia. Britain’s Roger Taylor (reached the semifinals) played only because he thought he would win the tournament. He later apologized to me for that – the legendary Shore Nicky recalled on one occasion.
