 Welcome back to Tennis Talk, my name is Cam Williams and the Law and Tennis Association in the UK. The LTA has been fined over a million dollars by the ATP after banning the Russian and Belarusian players from playing not only just Wimbledon, but all the tournaments throughout the UK. The LTA have come out with a statement, so let's go have a look and see what they've said in response to the fines. This is what the LTA have to say. The LTA is deeply disappointed with this outcome. The ATP in its finding has shown no recognition of the exceptional circumstances created by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, or the international sporting community and UK government's response to that invasion. The ATP appeared to regard this matter as a straightforward breach of their rule, with a surprising lack of empathy shown for the situation in Ukraine and a clear lack of understanding of the unique circumstances the LTA faced. The financial impact of both this fine and the WTA's fine will have a material impact on the LTA's ability to develop and host tennis in this country. For example, we had intended to host a number of ATP challenger level events to give more opportunities to lower ranked players in the first quarter of 2023 and will now not be able to do this, particularly given the possibility of further fines. We will carefully consider our response and we await the outcome of our appeal against the WTA's decision and sanction. So there you have it, the LTA's response to the fines from both the ATP and the WTA who fined them back in July. They're on appeal at the moment, so they've got to pay up a lot of money in fines for breaking rules, and I can see where they're coming from. You know, the circumstances are very unique, but they're the only country and they're the only organization to ban Russian and Belarusian players. You know, you've got the Australian Open coming up. The only thing that the Russians and Belarusians aren't allowed to do is play in the team competitions, which is I think totally fair because in other sports, that's been the case as well. You know, the World Cup, Russia's not playing there. You know, you've got plenty of other sports that are banning the team from that country, but we've been stripping the flags for the last six over six months. So I don't know why they wouldn't just go down that path and avoid all the fines, but hey, I guess they've got different motivations. But let me know down in the comments below. What do you reckon about the fines? Do you think they're justified? Do you think they're unfair? It's such a shame that it's coming at the cost of smaller events. You know, as I said, they're going to fund a lot of smaller events, challenger events, and they're going to have to get stripped away, unfortunately. But, you know, they did break a rule from the ATP and WTA's agreement. So let me know down in the comments below. What do you reckon about these fines?