The tennis tours are putting pressure on the British authorities to admit Russian and Belarusian players this summer, with the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) offering a $500,000 incentive for the ban to be dropped.

Last year, the WTA imposed fines of $1 million for the exclusion of Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka and other players of controversial nationality from all the British grass-court events.

In response to an appeal from the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), the WTA has now stated that the fine, which has already been paid, will be retrospectively reduced to $500,000 if Russian and Belarusian players are allowed at this summer’s build-up events before Wimbledon: namely Nottingham, Birmingham and Eastbourne.

The prospect of tennis being used to promote a pro-Putin agenda, however, remains real as seen in Melbourne.

The Daily Telegraph in London