"Imagine the British being a f***ing gatekeeper" - Tennis fans react to Andrey Rublev's revelation about not getting an invitation to play in Laver Cup 2022

The Laver Cup, a tournament sponsored by Roger Federer and his management company Team8 in honor of tennis legend Rod Laver, just came to an end with Team World taking home the trophy in the 2022 edition.

However, the Russians and Belarusians couldn't participate in the tournament due to the British Government's rule, which also prevented them from taking part in the Wimbledon Championships earlier this year. Andrey Rublev, the tournament's MVP in 2021, and former World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev were two notable absentees.

Speaking in a recent interview, Rublev recently disclosed that Medvedev was invited to play in the 2022 Laver Cup but was unable to do so because of government influence. As per Championat, he also revealed that he himself wasn't invited by the organizers.

"I don't. I know that Dana (Medvedev) - yes. But the British government is there, and they hinted that it probably won’t work," Andrey Rublev said.

The whole situation didn't appear to sit well with some tennis fans, who voiced their disapproval on Reddit. One user criticized Laver Cup officials for not sending an invitation to last year's MVP and wrote:

"MVP Andrey Rublev didn't even get a pity invite? wow rude!"

Another user, meanwhile, slammed the British government for barring the Russians from taking part in the tournament, and wrote:

"Imagine the f***ing British being the gatekeeper. The source of countless miseries around the globe for centuries."

Another user claimed that the Russians weren't invited to play because the Laver Cup was simply intended to generate publicity, which the Russians are not excellent at right now.

"The whole Laver Cup is a PR thing and at this point in time Russians are not good for PR," the user wrote.

Here are a few more reactions:

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"My weakness is mental and little by little there are some improvements" - Andrey Rublev

2022 US Open - Day 10

With a convincing second-round victory over Zhizhen Zhang of China, Andrey Rublev extended his stellar performance at the Astana Open. In their first-ever match on the ATP Tour, the Russian used all of his experience to win 6-3, 6-2 and Adrian Mannarino will now be his opponent when they meet in the quarterfinals.

The Russian recently opened up in an ATP media interview about his tense encounter against Denis Shapovalov in the third round of this year's US Open, where he discussed his progress in the quest for maturity. Stating that he is pleased with how he conducted himself during the match, the Russian hopes to continue doing so in the coming days and better himself mentally.

"Everyone has their own weaknesses," Andrey Rublev said, adding, "My weakness is mental and little by little there are some improvements. [Before] I would already explode and because of that lose the match. But even in the moment it looks impossible to [maintain composure], I was able to do it."

"It was giving me a turning moment and I was able to win the match. I was feeling a bit proud of myself after the match, I’ll be honest. I showed on court I was better as a person. But I don’t want to focus on that. It’s like `OK, go back to reality, and you still have this problem there – go fix it,'" he added.