This Tennis Ceremony Is a Disgrace

The ceremony to introduce the Next Gen ATP Finals tournament was nothing less than an absolute disgrace!

ATP Finals
(Photo Credit: https://i.eurosport.com

The ceremony was held in Milan and was supposed to have a degree of professionalism maintained. What unveiled was a sexist act put together by the sponsors Red Bull. The ATP and Red Bull had this appalling idea of having players walk down the aisle with a female model who will then reveal the letter A or B somewhere upon her body. The letters represented the group these players would participate in.

One of the players had to lift the skirt of his fellow model to reveal the letter A on her thigh. At this point, the audience was not so sure if the event even remotely belonged to the sport. Andy Murray’s former coach – Amelie Mauresmo – was among the first people to voice it out by tweeting the words, “Disgrace!”. Judy Murray followed by tweeting, “Awful”!

While both Red Bull and ATP have apologized for the event but that does not mean that people would forget the sexist execution of their “futuristic” campaign. The newly proposed event has become a victim of severe backlash. It is highly doubtful it will be able to gather many viewers

Rafael Nadal Fuels Fight Without Hint

Rafael Nadal—the Spanish Star—recently won his match against Grigor Dimitrov to match closer to his ATP Tour title. Croft, who was watching the match felt like praising Nadal’s volleys and talked about it in the post-match interview. This is where things took the wrong turn.

Annabel Croft

Croft continues to defend Nadal’s technique and said that he has perfect positioning on the court which helps his volleys a lot. For some reason, Rusedski seemed to be denying Croft’s statement. Greg and Croft have been known for their childish and unnecessary arguments but this was a little different.

While Greg did not want to admit it, Nadal’s game was enthralling enough to make him utter words in favor of Croft. Greg Rusedski tried his best to go along but he just needed to oppose it. Rusedski denied the comments of Miles Maclagan—who was also present in the studio and partnering with Croft on her valid points.

After fighting two to one for a while, Greg finally decided to become mature for once and agreed with his partners at the studio. It is quite embarrassing for a sport of such massive following that two key personnel keep fighting each other like children over matters that are literally of no concern.

Alexandr Dolgopolov Is a Match Fixer

Alexandr Dolgopolov does not have the nerve to keep away from controversy. Recently, the Ukrainian tennis player got accused of fixing a match.

Alexandr Dolgopolov

It has been long since the Ukrainian landed a match in Round 16 of the ATP Tournament. The pressure and nervousness were bound to build for such an inexperienced player. However, a true sportsman would trust his capabilities rather than resorting to fixing matches.

In a match played against T. Monteiro a few days earlier, a man who could not secure a single break point, and ranked 114th in the world, beat someone within 55 minutes, which is quite fascinating for many. Soon, the Tennis Integrity Unit—TIU—was taking notice of the unusual game prowess shown by Dolgopolov.

Furthermore, the betting was suspended due to some unusual moves. The suspicions were high after the match and when surrounded by the press, Dolgopolov’s statement was,

“I don’t give a f—k” about the media’s “circus”

Dolgopolov was clearly mad at being cornered and anger is the most obvious way out of such situations. It seems like the Ukranian doesn’t know much about handling top games. Back in 2011, he was accused of the same charges, but was lucky to get off the hook. Ironically, 2011 was the last time he reached a similar stage in the ATP Tournament.

The investigation into this incident is still underway.

Tennis Federation: Ignorant or Amoral?

Either the Tennis Federation is highly corrupt, or it lacks the ability to judge. Either way, it surely does a pathetic job.

Tennis Federation

Banning players is much like a hobby in tennis. The federation needs no reason to keep a player from featuring in a match. A recent “victim” was Sara Errani, an Italian tennis player. She conveniently took drugs to elevate her clearly pitiful performance in the court. Here’s the funny part: when caught, she blamed her mother’s home-made tortellini!

Yes, according to Sara, the drug found in her tests was apparently an ingredient of her mother’s secret recipe. The perplexing end of the story comes next, when the Tennis Federation considers it an honest mistake and applies a meager ban of two months on the player.

For context, the drug that was apparently an ingredient of Sara’s mother’s tortellini, is actually letrozole. It is used to treat breast cancer, and to enhance muscle tissue growth in female bodybuilders. The tennis federation somehow doesn’t have a clue. The investigation department at this Federation clearly has some people that need to be let go of, of course for the stellar job they have done in investigating Sara’s case.

The Italian player and former World’s Number 5 will be back in two months, more like an unplanned vacation for her after getting off the hook with a dope excuse.

Wimbledon Must Stop Being Sexist

Wimbledon is among the most sexist courts when it comes to scheduling matches.

Wimbledon Court 1

The infamous court features great matches and a star-strutted line of players, both men and women. More men than women in fact! It features two show courts, both of which were clearly booked for men’s matches. To be specific, in the initial week of the Wimbledon, the courts had 25 men’s matches compared to the 17 for women.

This clearly shows the sexist approach that Wimbledon has. It is as if the officials drool over the money and don’t care a gif about the time that is awarded to women to play on the court.  Statistics as such has made Wimbledon subject to blasphemy.

This issue continued to boil as a couple of key women’s matches were kept far from the limelight. The match between Jelena Ostapenko and Elena Svitolina is a perfect example. This match was played on Court 12. Jelena Ostapenko also spoke on the matter saying,

“I think I deserve to play on a better court than Court 12.”

Disappointingly, instead of confronting and working to solve the issue, officials have been giving out arguments in their defense, as if there could be anything to justify the matter. Wimbledon clearly needs to get its acts together, and step into the 21st Century.