ATP is in a state of disrepair

[Tennease]

Full state of disrepair of men’s tennis exposed in Wimbledon crisis

JULY 2, 201911:08am





James Matthey
news.com.au

On what is normally one of the brightest days on the tennis calendar, a dark cloud hung over Wimbledon.

As tennis-loving Brits soaked up the sun and sipped on Pimm’s, players were forced to address an ugly side haunting the sport — on the men’s side at least.

Political upheaval has rocked the ATP before the year’s third grand slam and a host of stars spent as much time answering questions about turmoil inside the locker room as they did talking about their own matches at the All England Club on Monday.

Four members of the 10-man ATP Player Council quit in the days leading up to Wimbledon because of disagreements over a new board member who replaced Justin Gimelstob. Former star Gimelstob stood down after being found guilty of assault and Weller Evans was voted in by the ATP Board, sparking a raft of exits.

Robin Haase, British doubles star Jamie Murray, Sergiy Stakhovsky and Andy Murray’s former coach Dani Vallverdu formed the quartet that quit the Player Council in the wake of the decision, and players had plenty to say about the situation the men’s game finds itself in now.

When Haase quit, he released a statement on social media saying he doesn’t trust the current regime to take tennis in the right direction and Stakhovsky said: “Personal gain and vendettas are at the heart of such a big disconnection on the Player Council”.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1145037363632058376

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1144912598678290432

Stan Wawrinka has been heavily critical of those who were responsible for ousting ATP chief Chris Kermode — a movement reportedly led by Gimelstob — and the Swiss star took aim again after his straight sets win over Ruben Bemelmans, calling the affair “messy”.

“The people who are dealing with what’s happening on the ATP Tour, recently has been really messy with people leaving the Council, all those things happening,” Wawrinka said.

“Now I think you need to wait a little bit to see what they really want, the people who are trying to make those change, because so far they only talk about making some change because something is wrong. They didn’t say what they want to do to improve or what they want to do to make it better.

Novak Djokovic is captain of a sinking ship.Source:Getty Images

“It’s been the last few months going in every direction. A lot of people are pulling out from the Council. A lot of other people are getting fired.
“It’s going to be interesting, hopefully in a positive way, but I doubt it. We’ll see what is going to happen in the next few months.”

Prizemoney has been a big talking point when it comes to changes some ATP Tour members want to see but world No. 54 Feliciano Lopez said his colleagues can’t complain about their pay packets and was adamant that wasn’t the only point of contention.

“Everything is falling apart. I don’t know why, but I don’t know what’s going on,” Lopez said with a smile. “For the moment, it’s kind of a mess. This is all I can tell you.

“Is not only about prizemoney, no? Many things going on, not only prizemoney. Many other things that have been under discussions during the week, with the Council, with the board. It’s not only about prizemoney. Prizemoney-wise I think we cannot complain, to be honest.”

President of the Player Council Novak Djokovic shares a close relationship with Gimelstob and reports have suggested the Serbian also played a strong role in the removal of Kermode, who enjoyed support from Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Roger Federer saw the mess coming.Source:Getty Images

After his win over Philipp Kohlschreiber, Djokovic said he caught up with Gimelstob in London and described the most recent Player Council meeting where several members quit as “turbulent”.

“I did say that I understand the players that have resigned. Very, you know, so to say, a turbulent meeting, if I may call it that way,” Djokovic said.

“We are all there to try to volunteer and contribute as much as we can for positive change in our sport.”

A 5-5 deadlock on the Council meant it was difficult to choose Gimelstob’s replacement before Evans was given the gig by the ATP Board and Djokovic said something needs to change to make decision-making easier in future when there is a tie.

“I think there has to be some form of change in the structure. I mean, there has to be something else that has to be implemented. They have to figure out ways, that’s not our job. We can obviously have conversations and suggest something,” Djokovic said

“It’s up to the management and the board reps to come up with some solutions. We’re waiting for them. Hopefully can have some good solutions in the future.”

South African Kevin Anderson is on the Player Council and defended its work, saying it was important not to get caught up in the “negative stuff”, but admitted these are challenging times.
“I’m really proud of everything we’ve been able to achieve. I think tennis as a global sport has continued to reach new heights. Player prizemoney has gone up a lot. I think more guys are able to make a living playing tennis,” Anderson said.

Novak has some explaining to do.Source:AFP
“By no means are we done. We want to make tennis as attractive a sport to as many people as possible. That’s what’s been focused on.

“There’s been a lot of outside topics, I guess, or things that we’ve had to deal with that we’re still dealing with. It’s been a bit of a tough process, to be honest with you.

“The more we can stay together, especially as players, the more we’ll be able to achieve at the end of the day.”

However, Anderson also addressed some of his frustrations with the way the political side of the sport works, saying meetings can be quite “intense” and improvements need to be made in future.

“I’ve tried to be very vocal. I think that’s been probably one of the more frustrating parts from my side - I don’t feel like I’ve been able to communicate or find a way with management yet to try and speed along the process,” Anderson said.

“There’s a very delicate balance between also trusting our board reps and having them make the best decisions for us.

“I do feel like one of the highlights from our last meeting was moving forward there will be a slightly different not necessarily structure, but the way we go about the meetings, the way we discuss, have the dialogue. I don’t know what that looks like yet.

“Sometimes the discussions can get quite intense, as well.

“I definitely feel like there’s a lot of room for improvement there.”

Source

 

[Lleytonstation]

Courts still slower.

 

[Harry_Wild]

https://www.atptour.com/en/players/weller-evans/e032/bio
He is a retired long time ATP lifer!

 

[jm1980]

I knew this was more whining about the majority decisions in the players' council

 

[EloQuent]

What a mess.

Get rid of Djokovic, Anderson, etc. Put in a new board that will address the institutional issues first, then try to sort out the prize money.

A union, separate from the tour, is probably the best way forward.

Anyone top 10 shouldn't be in leadership. Also, there should be a rule against felons being involved and I can't believe that has to be said.

 

[Bartelby]

The Player Council doesn't run tennis. It's a board sitting under another board, from memory. It seemed to acquire the power to oust Kermode through alliances with others, so there is quite a lot of in-fighting going on.

My guess is that the in-fighting is not designed to benefit the players, but to benefit those who stand to gain a lot of money out of the ATP swinging things there way and Kermode was in the way. The players need to elect new reps!

 

[reaper]

The bigger crisis is unfolding on the court. Perhaps A. Zverev might be better suited to a job in admin.

 

[terribleIVAN]

If Feliciano really thinks players can't complain about prize money, he should contact Christophe Rochus, former world number 38, and hear his piece of mind.

 

[reaper]

If Feliciano really thinks players can't complain about prize money, he should contact Christophe Rochus, former world number 38, and hear his piece of mind.

Without knowing what Christophe Rochus said he's long since retired and probably didn't benefit from the significant increases players have had in recent years. It's a difficult issue for the sport, balancing the current situation of multi millionaire players who have achieved nothing who openly mock the sport, with the right of players not right at the top to earn a good living. The money in recent years hasn't exactly spawned a generation of players willing to sacrifice to make it to the top.

 

[Raiden]

Actually it's not all about Gimelstob but only Gimelstob is mentioned in the gossip/smut-loving press.

The ones who resigned resigned out of simple matters like process issues (how voting is done, what happens when it's a tie, how long should discussions last and so on).

The first one of the four who resigned (Haase) spontaneously got up and said I've had enough of this sh*t and left, apparently out of pure exhaustion. Others probably left for other reasons even thou they got inspired by Haase making the move. This suggests that they may have perhaps accepted losing the vote if the process had been conducted smoothly.

And one more issue is something that Nadal pointed to but no one in the "crisis" chattering media mentioned: namely that by electing Evans over Lapenti, they jammed the board full of Anglo Saxons, as the other two player reps were already that. Nadal suggested that that is not a proper representation of the global tennis playing community and had wanted the Spanish speaking Latin American Lapenti to get Gimelstob's slot (since the other two player reps on the board are an Englishman representing Europe and a South African representing rest of the world)

And given the fact that due to the 5-5 tie in the player council, it is the player board and therefore the other two "Anglo Saxon" player reps who made the deciding vote to add a third native English speaker into their club. So from an organizational standpoint, these things do make the ATP look like a very self-serving mafia clan type outfit who "keep it in the family".

 

[Red Rick]

What a mess.

Get rid of Djokovic, Anderson, etc. Put in a new board that will address the institutional issues first, then try to sort out the prize money.

A union, separate from the tour, is probably the best way forward.

Anyone top 10 shouldn't be in leadership. Also, there should be a rule against felons being involved and I can't believe that has to be said.

Yeah it should not be led by a big name player.

 

[DSH]

$$$,
This is all the matters!

 

[reaper]

Actually it's not all about Gimelstob but only Gimelstob is mentioned in the gossip/smut-loving press.

The ones who resigned resigned out of simple matters like process issues (how voting is done, what happens when it's a tie, how long should discussions last and so on).

The first one of the four who resigned (Haase) spontaneously got up and said I've had enough of this sh*t and left, apparently out of pure exhaustion. Others probably left for other reasons even thou they got inspired by Haase making the move. This suggests that they may have perhaps accepted losing the vote if the process had been conducted smoothly.

And one more issue is something that Nadal pointed to but no one in the "crisis" chattering media mentioned: namely that by electing Evans over Lapenti, they jammed the board full of Anglo Saxons, as the other two player reps were already that. Nadal suggested that that is not a proper representation of the global tennis playing community and had wanted the Spanish speaking Latin American Lapenti to get Gimelstob's slot (since the other two player reps on the board are an Englishman representing Europe and a South African representing rest of the world)

And given the fact that due to the 5-5 tie in the player council, it is the player board and therefore the other two "Anglo Saxon" player reps who made the deciding vote to add a third native English speaker into their club. So from an organizational standpoint, these things do make the ATP look like a very self-serving mafia clan type outfit who "keeps it in the family".

What are the different material interests of players based on ethnicity? Beyond being "a bad look" how does a Spanish speaker (or other non Anglo) represent the ordinary tour player better than an Anglo? I'm assuming ATP Reps are elected by the players, but don't know if that's the case.....

 

[Raiden]

What are the different material interests of players based on ethnicity? Beyond being "a bad look" how does a Spanish speaker (or other non Anglo) represent the ordinary tour player better than an Anglo? I'm assuming ATP Reps are elected by the players, but don't know if that's the case.....

You assumed wrong.

I just told you that the other two ended up electing the third player rep... because according to the rules that's what happens when the ten players (council) fails to do its job and elect one (got deadlocked at 5-5, which is dumb). By now the ATP should have had an odd number of players making up the council. That's how you set up an organization with voting powers.... unless you wanted to pass your voting powers to someone else. They got tricked by sleazy lawyers when they agreed to that even numbered composition. Such a system is deliberately set up in order to create a backdoor way to pass the decision making power to another entity.

As to your claim of what makes a difference if a Spanish native, well if your "logic" is that any diverse group can be represented by a relatively identical subset of individuals, then why wasn't it sufficient for Englishmen George Washington & Benjamin Franklin to be represented by other Englishmen with a different accent monopolizing the British parliament?

 

[reaper]

You assumed wrong.

I just told you that the other two ended up electing the third player rep... because according to the rules that's what happens when the ten players (council) fails to do its job and elect one (got deadlocked at 5-5, which is dumb). By now the ATP should have had an odd number of players making up the council. That's how you set up an organization with voting powers.... unless you wanted to pass your voting powers to someone else. They got tricked by sleazy lawyers when they agreed to that even numbered composition. Such a system is deliberately set up in order to create a backdoor way to pass the decision making power to another entity.

As to your claim of what makes a difference if a Spanish native, well if your "logic" is that any diverse group can be represented by a relatively identical subset of individuals, then why wasn't it sufficient for Englishmen George Washington & Benjamin Franklin to be represented by other Englishmen with a different accent monopolizing the British parliament?

What you said was "that by electing Evans over Lapenti they jammed the board full of Anglo Saxons." It's not clear from that who "they" refers too. I didn't actually make a claim surrounding the difference a Spanish native would make on the board I asked a question. Regarding the composition of a parliamentary democracy where broader issues are discussed and wealth disparities and hence relationship to capital and property can often have an historical basis in race a strong argument for broader representation can be made. It's not clear to me that such historical issues exist relevant to the ATP board (they might, if for example the ATP board is involved in funding allocations to national development programs etc). Otherwise it's still not clear what difference it makes. So long as there's no structural impediment to non Anglos joining the board what's the problem? Anglos aren't in the majority so can't control the board....unless they're the only ones who bother showing up.

 

[Raiden]

What you said was "that by electing Evans over Lapenti they jammed the board full of Anglo Saxons." It's not clear from that who "they" refers too. I didn't actually make a claim surrounding the difference a Spanish native would make on the board I asked a question. Regarding the composition of a parliamentary democracy where broader issues are discussed and wealth disparities and hence relationship to capital and property can often have an historical basis in race a strong argument for broader representation can be made. It's not clear to me that such historical issues exist relevant to the ATP board (they might, if for example the ATP board is involved in funding allocations to national development programs etc). Otherwise it's still not clear what difference it makes. So long as there's no structural impediment to non Anglos joining the board what's the problem? Anglos aren't in the majority so can't control the board....unless they're the only ones who bother showing up.

LMAO

You just answered your own question, without being aware of it.

Money, power dynamics, representation. That's all the ATP-vs-players is all about, nothing more nothing less. Nothing new under the sun.

 

[reaper]

LMAO

You just answered your own question.

Money, power dynamics, representation. That's all the ATP-vs-players is all about, nothing more nothing less. Nothing new under the sun.

Yes but there's no clear ethnicity based nature to the dispute. The lack of diversity that might be of concern would be if all the player reps were from a narrow sphere in the rankings. It's not clear to me that there's a difference in the interests of a player ranked 100 based on whether that player is English, Spanish or anything else.

 

[icedevil0289]

honestly whether or not gimelstob was going to somehow overturn the atp idk, everything ive heard about him, not including his recent incident, didn't give me the impression he was for the "people".

idk if novak should be advertising that he met gimelstob in london and doesn't have a hard no as to whether he might return...like that shouldn't even be entertained. My understanding is that gimelstob, novak, etc were trying to completely overturn/revamp the atp and fight corruption but honestly it seems rather contradictory to say you fight corruption and use somebody like gimelstob to do so.

 

[icedevil0289]

Actually it's not all about Gimelstob but only Gimelstob is mentioned in the gossip/smut-loving press.

The ones who resigned resigned out of simple matters like process issues (how voting is done, what happens when it's a tie, how long should discussions last and so on).

The first one of the four who resigned (Haase) spontaneously got up and said I've had enough of this sh*t and left, apparently out of pure exhaustion. Others probably left for other reasons even thou they got inspired by Haase making the move. This suggests that they may have perhaps accepted losing the vote if the process had been conducted smoothly.

And one more issue is something that Nadal pointed to but no one in the "crisis" chattering media mentioned: namely that by electing Evans over Lapenti, they jammed the board full of Anglo Saxons, as the other two player reps were already that. Nadal suggested that that is not a proper representation of the global tennis playing community and had wanted the Spanish speaking Latin American Lapenti to get Gimelstob's slot (since the other two player reps on the board are an Englishman representing Europe and a South African representing rest of the world)

And given the fact that due to the 5-5 tie in the player council, it is the player board and therefore the other two "Anglo Saxon" player reps who made the deciding vote to add a third native English speaker into their club. So from an organizational standpoint, these things do make the ATP look like a very self-serving mafia clan type outfit who "keep it in the family".

i think that it is important to make sure that there is diversity but I like that to mean actually representing the globe, more people of color

 

[terribleIVAN]

Without knowing what Christophe Rochus said he's long since retired and probably didn't benefit from the significant increases players have had in recent years. It's a difficult issue for the sport, balancing the current situation of multi millionaire players who have achieved nothing who openly mock the sport, with the right of players not right at the top to earn a good living. The money in recent years hasn't exactly spawned a generation of players willing to sacrifice to make it to the top.

Preposterous by you to claim because a few Aussies full of themselves abuse the game it represents the entire top 20.

Players outside top 100, who sacrificed their youth, health and family life for the game play for nothing while the management of tournaments, who never put their bodies and health on the line feast on 85% of the prize-money.

All the while the top 10 gets so much endorsement dollars they wouldn't lift a little finger to defend the integrity and finances of those less fortunate than themselves.

I think the current fiasco rests as much on the greed of a few managers than on the abject betrayal of the top 10, all of them.

 

[reaper]

Preposterous by you to claim because a few Aussies full of themselves abuse the game it represents the entire top 20.

Players outside top 100, who sacrificed their youth, health and family life for the game play for nothing while the management of tournaments, who never put their bodies and health on the line feast on 85% of the prize-money.

All the while the top 10 gets so much endorsement dollars they wouldn't lift a little finger to defend the integrity and finances of those less fortunate than themselves.

I think the current fiasco rests as much on the greed of a few managers than on the abject betrayal of the top 10, all of them.

It would be a preposterous claim that because a few Aussies abuse their position that everybody does....except that I didn't make that claim.

 

[sanak]

I recommend Tsitispas to head players' council. He seems to be a very mature guy.

 

[icedevil0289]

Actually it's not all about Gimelstob but only Gimelstob is mentioned in the gossip/smut-loving press.

The ones who resigned resigned out of simple matters like process issues (how voting is done, what happens when it's a tie, how long should discussions last and so on).

The first one of the four who resigned (Haase) spontaneously got up and said I've had enough of this sh*t and left, apparently out of pure exhaustion. Others probably left for other reasons even thou they got inspired by Haase making the move. This suggests that they may have perhaps accepted losing the vote if the process had been conducted smoothly.

And one more issue is something that Nadal pointed to but no one in the "crisis" chattering media mentioned: namely that by electing Evans over Lapenti, they jammed the board full of Anglo Saxons, as the other two player reps were already that. Nadal suggested that that is not a proper representation of the global tennis playing community and had wanted the Spanish speaking Latin American Lapenti to get Gimelstob's slot (since the other two player reps on the board are an Englishman representing Europe and a South African representing rest of the world)

And given the fact that due to the 5-5 tie in the player council, it is the player board and therefore the other two "Anglo Saxon" player reps who made the deciding vote to add a third native English speaker into their club. So from an organizational standpoint, these things do make the ATP look like a very self-serving mafia clan type outfit who "keep it in the family".

just curious what is your source for why 4 players resigned, more particularly haase.

 

[icedevil0289]

I recommend Tsitispas to head players' council. He seems to be a very mature guy.

lol no thank you

 

[Raiden]

just curious what is your source for why 4 players resigned, more particularly haase.

Dutch news.

 

[icedevil0289]

Dutch news.

oh okay based on his statements and the statements of others along with journalists it seemed deeper than that.

 

[Raiden]

oh okay based on his statements and the statements of others along with journalists it seemed deeper than that.

Dutch media insists that Haase resigned because of his exasperation (not cuz of Gimelstob). He said he made all kinds of recommendations and ideas to improve player conditions on and off court but he never got a follow up. He felt that he was being kept as window dressing and got polite replies that his suggestions will be taken into consideration by the next meeting or next whatever, but in the end nothing got acted upon. He felt useless.

Federer in his presser told Swiss media that Haase has been contemplating to resign much earlier but Rog persuaded him to stay till now. So clearly the Gimelstob voting was not the direct reason he resigned... perhaps it was only a trigger that helped him time his resignation (given the scare that there will be future unproductive but long ass meetings). Haase had also criticised Wimbledon for not listening to his quest (that he claimed has broad support) to make the courts or balls faster and make conditions more volley friendly. Last but not least, his game was beginning to suffer because of all this distraction.