Russian tennis player Andrei Rublev has blasted Wimbledon's ban on Russian and Belarusian players as "complete discrimination" and "illogical."
Rublev, the world's eighth-ranked men's player, joined world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in criticizing the ban, which the Serb called "crazy" earlier on April 21.
The reasons Wimbledon gave made no sense, Rublev said on the sidelines of the Serbia Open, an ATP 250 event in Belgrade.
"What is happening now is complete discrimination against us," Rublev said, according to the AFP news agency.
Wimbledon on April 20 became the first tennis tournament to ban Russian and Belarusian players in response to Russia's war, a move that was immediately criticized by the world governing bodies for men's and women's professional tennis as unfair.
The ban means that the men's world No. 2, Russia's Daniil Medvedev, and the women's fourth-ranked player, Belarus's Aryna Sabalenka, will be banned from the June 27-July 10 tournament.
Djokovic, who grew up in war-torn Serbia, said the athletes had nothing to do with the ongoing conflict.
"I will always condemn war. I will never support war, being myself a child of war," Djokovic told reporters at the Belgrade tournament.
"I know how much emotional trauma it leaves. In Serbia, we all know what happened in 1999. In the Balkans, we have had many wars in recent history.
"However, I cannot support the decision of Wimbledon. I think it is crazy," he said. "When politics interferes with sport, the result is not good."
Djokovic was playing in just his third tournament of the season after being deported from Australia ahead of the Australian Open over his COVID-19 vaccination status.
Belarusian tennis officials said that the Wimbledon ban will only "incite hatred and intolerance" and they threatened to pursue legal action to have the ban overturned.
"The Belarusian Tennis Federation categorically condemns the decision taken by the organizers of Wimbledon to suspend Belarusian and Russian tennis players," the federation said in a statement.
"Such destructive actions in no way contribute to the resolution of conflicts, but only incite hatred and intolerance on a national basis."
The federation added that it was consulting with "international law firms" over Wimbledon's decision.
Women's tennis legends Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova added their voices to those opposing the Wimbledon ban.
"One of the guiding principles of the founding of the [Women's Tennis Association] was that any girl in the world, if she was good enough, would have a place to compete," King said on Twitter.
"I stood by that in 1973 and I stand by that today. I cannot support the banning of individual athletes from any tournament, simply because of their nationality."
Navratilova, who won Wimbledon a record nine times between 1978 and 1990, called the move "the wrong decision."
"Exclusion like this, through no fault of these players, is not the way to go," she told LBC Radio on April 20.
"Tennis is such a democratic sport, it is difficult when you see politics destroy it. On the women's side, practically 10 percent of the field is not allowed to play" because of the ban, she said.