World number one Iga Swiatek believes tennis authorities missed the opportunity to take a stand against the war in Ukraine by banning Russian and Belarusian players.
In response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year – which was aided by Belarus – players from both countries were barred from competing at Wimbledon.
Wimbledon was the only grand slam to implement a ban, however, and affected players will be able to return to SW19 this year as neutral athletes after the All England Club reversed the move.
While Swiatek acknowledges a ban may be harsh on Russian and Belarusian players, she feels the sport missed a chance to send a strong message to Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime by enacting such a measure.
"I heard that after World War II, German players were not allowed as well as Japanese and Italian, and I feel like this kind of thing would show the Russian government that maybe it's not worth it," she told the BBC.
"I know it's a small thing because we are just athletes, a little piece in the world, but I feel like sport is pretty important and sport has always been used in propaganda.
"This is something that was considered at the beginning, tennis didn't really go that way, but now it would be pretty unfair for Russian and Belarusian players to do that, because this decision was supposed to be made a year ago.
"I feel like tennis, from the beginning, could do a bit better in showing everybody that tennis players are against the war."
On her Russian and Belarusian colleagues, Swiatek added: "It's not their fault they have a passport like that, but on the other hand, we all have some kind of impact.
"I feel like anything that would help stop the Russian aggression, we should go that way in terms of the decisions the federations are making."
