LET, LET, LET, LET, LET...

by Overhead Spin

Let - Justin Gimelstob

How many lets will it take before tennis finally calls a fault on Justin Gimelstob?  Clearly, as much as it takes. 

In case you missed it, after almost a year of denying he ever assaulted Mr. Kaplan, Justin Gimelsob pled no contest to felony assault which was then reduced to a misdemeanour charge.  He has been sentenced to 3 years' probation and 60 hours of community service.  

At the time when this incident came to light we were told that we should wait until the legal proceedings had run their course as there was more to this story than meets the eye.  Clearly there isn't as if there was Mr. Gimelstob would have had his day in court where he would have called on witnesses to refute the allegations of Mr. Kaplan and his wife.  The victim impact statement from both Mr. & Mrs. Kaplan tells the tale of a man completely and utterly out of control. 

Apparently, Mr. Gimelstob is such a powerful figure that tennis believes that it needs him.  The deafening silence from the people who say that they are tennis journalists is as someone pointed out on social media today, deafening, defining silence. 

Jon Wertheim attempted to put the ball squarely in the court of Mr. Gimelstob.  In a piece of writing that can only be termed cringe worthy, Mr. Wertheim calls on Mr. Gimelstob to put his tennis colleagues and the sport itself, including the governing body of men's tennis, and the ATP Player Council out of its collective misery by doing the right thing and stepping down. 

No Mr. Wertheim.  That is not how taking responsibility and showing leadership works.  I am all about second chances. After all we have just done the whole Lenten journey (and for those who don't there is Passover) where we are called to forgive etc.  However, Mr. Gimelstob has had many chances.  From his nasty, disgusting remarks a few years ago about Kournikova, to his general all around sleaziness, this man should in no way be representative of a sport that has as one of its tenets the promotion of a wholesome, healthy lifestyle for young people, especially men. 

At a time when the world is striving hard towards decency and holding people to account, it would be detrimental to the sport if someone like Gimelstob was given a pass just because he acted in the heat of the moment.  This was not a  heat in the moment situation.  This was an all out attack on someone who had done nothing to deserve it.  To compound matters even more we are being told that the reason for this display of outright aggression had to do with the death of his father. 

I am sorry, but in the same way that we are being asked to sympathise with Gimelstob, where was the sympathy for Serena Williams when the person who killed her sister in cold blood was released?  That was the same year that she had issues at the US Open where she was deducted a game.  If I recall there were many in the tennis booth who did not shy away from expressing their opinion on this topic.  A little closer to home, how about Kyrgios and the constant call for  him to be placed on suspension or probation.  However, the ATP as an organisation tends not to deal with things that bring the sport into disrepute or indeed tends to engage in the whitewashing of bad behaviour. 

This time around though, tennis needs to take matters into its own hands.  It is time to say goodbye to Gimelstob. 

Double Fault - Sorana Cirstea

In case you missed it, Sorana Cirstea went all touchy feely on the chair umpire in her losing match in Instanbul.  The video which is circulating on social media has fans up in arms as it seems as if for physically assaulting an umpire, i.e. putting her arm on the umpire's body without his permission, Cirstea received a code violation. 

Back track to the 2018 US Open and Serena Williams calling the umpire a thief. For that egregious violation, the umpires on the tennis circuit met and decided that they would not be umpiring any matches featuring Serena Williams.  I am sure that all of us are waiting with baited breath for the results of the ongoing umpire's meeting where they are no doubt discussing the fact that they will no longer umpire any matches featuring Sorana Cirstea ... 

Game, Set, Match - David Ferrer

He was one of my first male tennis loves.  I loved his fight.  I loved his tenacity.  I loved his demeanour.  I am sad that my little honey badger (hat tip to Honey Badger) is no longer playing tennis.  May your retirement be as fruitful as was your tennis life.