Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, who ranks fifth in Women's Tennis Association's (WTA's) world rankings table, wants to play in The Wimbledon Championships in 2023 after being forbidden from taking part last year.

A series of Russian and Belarusian players, including stars like Sabalenka and Daniil Medvedev, were banned from competing at Wimbledon in 2022 by organizers because of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. This decision drew a lot of criticism as well as response from both the Association of Tennis Professionals and WTA to strip the tournament of ranking points.

Sabalenka called the Wimbledon organizers' ban a "terrible" decision when she spoke to Melbourne's The Age newspaper on Sunday. "The problem is we have to speak loud about that ... but why should we scream about that in every corner? It's not going to help at all," the 24-year-old Belarusian star said. "I'm just really disappointed sport is somehow in politics. We're just athletes playing their sport. That's it. We're not about politics. If all of us could do something, we would, but we have zero control."

"They banned us from Wimbledon and what did it change? Nothing – they're still doing this and this is the sad [part] of this situation," Sabalenka added. She participated in three of the four Grand Slam events in 2022 – the Australian, French and U.S. Open – and only missed Wimbledon.

"I really hope I'll play there [in 2023], just because of the people, to feel this atmosphere. But if they're going to ban us again, I don't care about Wimbledon's decision. The only thing I'll miss is the people," Sabalenka said. She is currently in Adelaide, Australia to participate in Adelaide International 1. As the No. 2 seed of the event, Sabalenka will face the winner between China's Zhang Shuai and Russia's Liudmila Samsonova in the second round.