It has been a long time coming. It has been simmering away for quite some
time. There have been hints, innuendoes
and sometimes allegedly misinterpreted comments. However, the truth, as they say is out there,
and it is coming to the fore in a way that makes tennis fans, at least those of
us who do not have our heads buried in the sand, that tennis not only has a
sexism problem, it has a racism one as well.
There has been a subtle insidiousness creeping into
tennis. From the rise of Fabio Fognini
and his penchant for misbehavior both on and off the court, to getting into
altercations with tournament officials, to finally calling a fellow player a
racial slur, the men’s tour has seen its representatives fall out of favour
with fans. Alexander Dolgopolov incurred
the wraths of tennis fans when he made fun of the LGBT community as well post several overtly sexist pictures of scantily clad
women on his Instagram account.
Sergei Stakohsky has never been far away from giving anyone with the
misfortune to hold a microphone to his mouth his views on women’s tennis and
the fact that the women should not be paid the same as the men.
However, none these men can be
construed as leaders within the tour. When the head of Russian tennis goes on a
popular night time show and demean 2 of the greatest female athletes that the
sport of tennis has ever known by referring to them as the Williams Brothers,
it’s time we take notice. Up to the time of writing this blog post,
Shamil Tarpishev has not apologized for his misogynistic and hateful
comments.
Tarpishev made his comments while on a show with none other
than Elena Dementieva, who has made demeaning comments about the Williams
Sisters in the past, most notably her claim that they fix matches. Tennis fans far and wide have said Elena
handled the situation with class. I
disagree. She did what many in the WTA have done for most of their careers: they
stay silent in the midst of nasty, hateful comments against one of their
own. Frankly, this is not the first
time that a WTA player has remained silent when one or the other of the
Williams Sisters have come under attack.
Why was Flavia Pennetta not questioned when her ‘rumored’
boyfriend, Fabio Fognini (him again) retweeted a claim by one of his Twitter
fans that he must feel jealous to see his girlfriend on the court with another
man? Compare Flavia’s silence to Venus’s staunch defense of Dinara Safina when
journalists challenged Safina’s place as #1 after Venus beat her soundly at
Wimbledon 2008? How about when Venus condemned the United Arab Emirates’s
rejection of Shahar Peer’s visa application? Would any other members of the WTA
take the time or effort to adopt such a stance now?
I don’t know why I am expecting another Billie Jean King
from this generation of players. These
are the same set of women who can’t even do their jobs without a man holding
their hands down courtside, so I am not sure what I am expecting from them. I
guess I am of the view that as colleagues we women would stand up for each
other, no matter what.
A fellow tennis friend of mine has made the observations
that as tennis becomes even more global, we will be seeing more of this type of
behavior from not only the players but from the fans themselves. Gone are the days when tennis players acted
with some amount of propriety and made sure not to bring the game into
disrepute. As the sport becomes more
global, nations that were not previously tennis havens will have their racial
and ethnic histories come to the fore.
They are coming with all of their racial and ethnic baggage. We will continue to see more disparaging
comments being made about minorities, be they sexual or gender oriented.
What can tennis do to
stop this?
Both Tours have been relatively silent on the recent issues
that have permeated tennis. I think one
of the reasons why the Tours have remained silent is because the journalists
who cover the sport have largely remained silent on this issue. Apart from Courtney N’guyen and Ben Rothenberg,
who wrote recently that the ATP Tour needs to step up in
regard to Fognini, there has been a deafening silence from the media on this
type of behavior. One wonders why the
ATP Tour is unwilling to go after Fognini with the full force of the ATP
Handbook, in much the same way that the ITF/USTA went after Serena Williams a
few years ago.
If you can threaten someone and be fined US$92,000.00 why
should you continue to bring the game into disrepute and keep getting a slap on
the wrist? Lest we forget, when Serena
was fined US$92,000 she had not laid a hand on the line official. Compare that to the fact that up to the time
of writing, we are yet to hear what has happened in the case of an alleged
incident which occurred with one of the Bryan brothers, which was hardly
reported in the media, where he reportedly put his hand on a tournament
official at the US Open. We have also
not heard about a fine, if any, that was imposed on Fognini (again that fellow)
when he allegedly put his hand on umpire Lahyani and invited him outside to
finish an argument.
Tennis is allowing itself to be railroaded by people who
fans are not even paying money to go see play.
Maybe that is the reason why tennis is turning a blind eye to what is
happening in the sport. However, it is
all well and good for the Fognini’s and Dolgopolovo’s of this world to go about
their business bringing the game into disrepute. It is quite another when the captain of the
Russian Davis and Fed Cup teams makes disparaging comments about fellow players
and nothing is said or done.
I think it’s time for tennis to move
beyond a focus on threatening language and include the creation of a toxic
environment within the purview of behavior worthy of fines or even suspension
from the tour?
Future Face of Tennis
I saw a tweet earlier about Eugenie Bouchard being the
future face of tennis. What exactly does
that mean? Is it because she is blonde
and good looking? Can she fill the seats in any stadium in the world? Do we see longevity in her? Is she a future No. 1? What makes her the Face of Tennis? If you
read this blog you know that I am a Genie fan, however, this constant hype of a
player whose only claim to fame is being pummeled in a Grand Slam final by
winning 3 games has become weary. Lest
we forget, Simona Halep also made it to a Grand Slam final and has won more
titles than Genie. Last year at this
time we were saying that Sloane Stephens was the Future of Women’s tennis. This year, it’s a case of we hardly knew you
Sloane. My point, let these young women
play their careers out. It is hard
enough being on the world stage in a demanding profession. We need not pile on additional pressure by
making any one player the face of anything.
