SOUNDING OFF

The Spin Team

Astra Sharma

The Spin Team

The US Open ended in September 2018.  During that time many pundits have written copious articles about Serena Williams and to a lesser extent the winner of the tournament, Naomi Osaka.  Players have been asked repeatedly about their views on Serena and most of them have not shied away from giving their thoughts on whether the treatment meted out to Serena at the US Open was sexist.  As a matter of fact, they have agreed that the umpire was correct in his judgment and that Serena's behaviour brought the sport into disrepute.  These are the same players who toed the WTA party line when asked to give their views on Sharapova's doping issues. 

But that is not what I want to talk about today.  I want to talk about the lack of leadership in the WTA and how that seems to be impacting the game.  There is a video making the rounds of Lindsay Davenport speaking truth regarding the lack of leadership in the WTA.  Hopman Cup, the exhibition mixed doubles tournament that has been around for over 100 years had its final season this year.  This tournament is being replaced by the ATP cup.  Apparently, the powers that be, when coming up with this event, did not bother to check in with the WTA to see whether they would be interested in being a part of this event.  

In case you missed it, there are usually 3 events that commence the Australian Open swing.  Auckland, Brisbane and Sydney.  Starting next year there will be a 24-man team event which will foreshadow the AO swing.  These are all men's events.  Read more on the event here

As I understand it, the WTA events that take place in Brisbane and Sydney will still be happening, however, the women's tour was not asked to be a part of restructuring of the lead up events in Australia. From what Davenport has said, they had no idea that this was even happening. 

Unfortunately, this has been the story of the WTA for quite a number of years.  In 2007 when Venus Williams advocated for equal prize money, at no other point that I can recall (and I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong), has there been discussions with the women's Tour as it relates to scheduling or any other concerns that affect professional tennis.  If I recall correctly, it was said at some point in the not too distant past, that the women just waited until the men have reached out to tournament directors and advocated. Then they simply asked for the same thing as the men.

The most recent issue that the WTA has taken up has to do with changing the rules as it affects women who have taken time off to have a family.  One would think that an organisation that represents female athletes would have had these issues written into its governing rules, but not the WTA, apparently. I took the opportunity to look at the WTA website to try and see if I perhaps missed some important information regarding the various issues that have caught the Tour on its back foot. Based upon the leadership I saw; I can't say that I am surprised as to the reason why. 

There are 11 persons who sit on the WTA Board of Directors (including its CEO Steve Simon).  Of that number only 3 are women.  They are Lisa Graham, Vanessa Webb and Dianne Hayes.  They are all listed as Player Class director. I don't know what that means in the grand scheme of things, but it is instructive to note that there is not one person of colour on the Board of Directors on a Tour that has as much diversity as the WTA Tour.  The fact that there are only 3 women on the Board may also reflect why an organisation tasked with looking out for the affairs of women is always caught defending its decisions, which generally are never in the best interests of the women that it seeks to represent. 

In the 2018 WTA media guide, the members of the Players' Council are identified as: Azarenka, Konta, Stosur, Williams (Venus), Safarova, Boserup, Falconi and Erakovic.  Did you know their names as easily as you probably knew who represents the men? It also lists a Tournament Council who’s made up entirely of men. The Executive team does include some female representation, but as with every organisation, the executives on the front line generally follow the dictates of the Board of Directors. 

Perhaps the reason why the Tour seems always to be caught on the back foot is because the persons in power don't have the foresight to anticipate the needs of its members.  Maybe the time has come for a seminal change in the way the WTA organisation, tasked with providing oversight for female professional athletes, starts to do the job for which they have been tasked to do.

From the issue of court assignments at the Majors, rankings and seedings for women returning from maternity leave, and clothing designed for women having health issues, the WTA continues to drop the ball in relation to these and many others. Rather than censoring the free speech of the women on Tour, the Tour should turn an eye unto themselves and determine if they need to diversify those who lead the organisation, so they can anticipate and lead rather than simply respond to the changing environment for women’s tennis.

It is always the simple things that tell the story.  One of the reasons why the men’s game is so damn popular and people can identify male players and they get lots of press coverage is because people can actually see them.  I missed the Ostapenko match last night and I just went to ESPN to catch it on replay.  Of the 43 matches that are currently listed under replay, 27 of those are men’s matches.  If people can always see what you have to offer, it creates an interest in what you are offering, but if the only time we get to see a player like Sakkari or Ostapenko is when they make it to the later rounds of an event, then the WTA is not doing its  job.

Day One Reflections

Julia Georges served for the match and lost to Danielle Collins in what was a nail biter of a match.  Whether it was the heat, her opponent or just Georges being Georges, the fact remains that Georges is one of those players with unfulfilled ambitions, a la Lisicki.  All the game in the world but mental game goes completely off the boil. 

I saw Sharma for the first time last night and I am impressed.  Interesting to see how she develops over the next few years. 

Ostapenko continues to disappoint.  I am not quite sure what else can be written about her really dismal performance since winning the French Open.  Maybe it was indeed a fluke win?

Caroline Garcia struggled in her match against Ponchet.  Her compatriot Mladenovic was literally annihilated by Donna Vekic.  Neither woman seems quite as invested in their tennis as in recent years and perhaps this can be attributable to the fact that there seems to be a lot of issues going on off court, or perhaps they have reached the zenith of their tennis and now require outside forces to perform a reset.  They both deserve better, especially Mladenovic, from their tennis. 

Spin's Day 2 Picks and what to watch are below:-

S. Halep [1] vs K. Kanepi - not sure which draw god Halep has offended but she continues to get her nemesis. Hopefully she would have learned something from her prior experiences, but I don't believe so. 

S. Kenin vs V. Kudermetova

A. Cornet vs L. Arruabarrena

V. Williams vs M. Buzarnescu [25]

C. Suárez Navarro [23] vs C. Burel

S. Stosur vs D. Yastremska

E. Bouchard vs S. Peng

T. Maria vs S. Williams [16]

D. Kasatkina [10] vs T. Bacsinszky

N. Vikhlyantseva vs V. Lepchenko

J. Konta vs A. Tomljanovic

S. Zheng vs G. Muguruza [18]

C. Giorgi [27] vs D. Jakupovic

I. Swiatek vs A. Bogdan

M. Brengle vs M. Doi

K. Muchova vs Ka. Pliskova [7]

N. Osaka [4] vs M. Linette

T. Zidansek vs D. Gavrilova

L. Siegemund vs V. Azarenka

S. Voegele vs S. Hsieh [28]

Q. Wang [21] vs F. Ferro

Z. Diyas vs A. Krunic

B. Andreescu vs W. Osuigwe

M. Barthel vs A. Sevastova [13]

E. Mertens [12] vs A. Schmiedlova

L. Zhu vs M. Gasparyan

P. Parmentier vs A. Potapova

D. Aiava vs M. Keys [17]

D. Cibulkova [26] vs S. Zhang

Kr. Pliskova vs A. Blinkova

V. Kuzmova vs K. Kozlova

V. Golubic vs E. Svitolina [6]

Lots of tasty matches in this side of the draw.  The following matches should bring some amount of excitement:-

Zhang v. Cibulkova 
Sevastova v. Barthel
Schmiedlova v. Mertens (come for the backhands)
Hsieh v. Voegele (Hsieh is the better version of Radwanska)
Williams (V) v. Buzarnescu (because its Venus)