Tennis Related - Off Court Serious Issues

[Owendonovan]

Same wavelength, Davide?

[ponchi101]

Davide? Sorry, missed that part.
It is not a matter of same wavelength. By now, you know that what I don't like is when decisions of this caliber are made based on "facts" that are not clearly established. Elena keeps defending him, which I find odd, but that was not a menial detail. With this info, the decision can be understood as a proper one.
I especially dislike the comments about him belittling her intelligence. So, with new data, I accept that this is correct.

[ti-amie]

Same wavelength, Davide?

I was a bit taken aback that Vukov "assigned" Davide to be her coach. Birds of a feather, etc., etc.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

Carole Bouchard
‪@carolebouchard.bsky.social‬
Looking at Acapulco’s draw and getting curious about the state of the appearance fees these days. Because I have a feeling the Big 4 money is long gone now. Bye bye the 7 figures?

Big 4 were able to demand a 7 figure to get out of bed because they kept delivering. Tournaments were taking very little risks paying the this much. Nowadays? I’d say only Sinner and Alcaraz can claim to qualify. So I’m wondering if prices have already started to crash.

Seems as if the state of tennis is in flux in terms of talent, especially outside of the majors.

Not sure if it’s fatigue or we are back to the early 1990’s when it seemed there was really no dominant figure at the time.

I’m just curious as to how some of these players approach these events that aren’t GS or M1000. And more generally curious about what their off court work and life looks like compared to the Big 4 era. But yeah take Sinner and Alcaraz out and it’s wide open. Djokovic is his own equation these days.

Who knows. I suspect as with so many other sports, the regular season or lesser events are becoming more and more a hindrance than a goal, and players are more concerned with load management (NBA term) and wanting to target peak fitness for the events that matter

[ti-amie]

[Fastbackss]

Holy clickbait

(Not sure anything there is revelatory though)

[ti-amie]

Holy clickbait

(Not sure anything there is revelatory though)

Certainly not for folks like us who understand the business side of tennis. It's just like Carole Bouchard talking about how the Big 4 wouldn't get out of bed unless their appearance fee that totaled seven digits was paid.

The LTA did this young woman no favors by hyping her up to be the next big thing in women's tennis. So far she's shown that she doesn't have the temperament or the will to be a top player and seems to want to do just enough to hold onto those endorsements. For example Porsche took her loaner away and she found a way to get her hands on another one. At least that's what the streets are saying.

[ponchi101]

What was the LTA to do? Not hype a player that won 10 straight matches, in straight sets, to win the USO? That would have been insane. Especially in view of the product. She is good looking, speaks two languages, one of them spoken by one of the largest markets in the word, and the sponsors were lining up.
Not hyping her was impossible.

[JTContinental]

It definitely fills in the gaps in the story where the abuse had been deliberately stripped out, but it really wasn’t hard to read between the lines.

Interestingly, the most telling sign of guilt to me was Rybakina’s constant insistence nothing was happening despite documented incidents with witnesses. This is classic abusive relationship behavior, just like Peng Shuai’s statement about how abuse didn’t happen after all.

ETA: this might be the wrong thread where we are discussing this?

[JTContinental]

Radacanu seems to have picked up a stalker in Dubai and will have a security team at Indian Wells.

[ponchi101]

It definitely fills in the gaps in the story where the abuse had been deliberately stripped out, but it really wasn’t hard to read between the lines.

Interestingly, the most telling sign of guilt to me was Rybakina’s constant insistence nothing was happening despite documented incidents with witnesses. This is classic abusive relationship behavior, just like Peng Shuai’s statement about how abuse didn’t happen after all.

ETA: this might be the wrong thread where we are discussing this?

Right topic. Just a few pages back.
Peng Shuai's statement and situation are different. She was obviously forced by the Chinese government to retract or else, and her abuser was a government official.
Not saying that your are wrong, as the new evidence now seems solid enough to truly do even more about Vukov. Just that two cases are not completely the same.

[ti-amie]

Women's tennis players now are eligible for paid maternity leave funded by Saudi Arabia's PIF
Pregnant players on the women’s tennis tour now can receive 12 months of paid maternity leave, and those who become parents via partner pregnancy, surrogacy or adoption can get two months off with pay

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP tennis writer
March 6, 2025, 11:00 AM

Pregnant players on the women's tennis tour now can receive 12 months of paid maternity leave, and those who become parents via partner pregnancy, surrogacy or adoption can get two months off with pay, under a program sponsored by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and announced Thursday by the WTA.

“Independent contractors and self-employed individuals don’t typically have these kinds of maternity benefits provided and available to them. They have to go out and sort of figure out those benefits for themselves,” WTA CEO Portia Archer said. “This is really sort of novel and groundbreaking.”

More than 300 players are eligible for the fund, which is retroactive to Jan. 1. The WTA would not disclose how much money is involved.

The program — which the WTA touted as “the first time in women’s sports history that comprehensive maternity benefits are available to independent, self-employed athletes” — also provides grants for fertility treatments, including egg freezing and IVF.

It's part of a wider trend: As women's sports rise, there is an emphasis on meeting maternity and parental needs.

The WTA says 25 moms are active on tour; one, Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Belinda Bencic, won a title last month after returning from maternity leave in October.

More and more pros in tennis have returned to action after having children, including past No. 1-ranked players and Grand Slam title winners such as Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Kim Clijsters, Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka.

Azarenka — a member of the WTA Players' Council, which Archer acknowledged played a key role in pushing for this fund — thinks these benefits will encourage lower-ranked or lower-earning athletes to take as much time off as they feel they need after becoming a parent, rather than worrying about losing out on income while not entering tournaments.

“That’s certainly one of the aims of the program: to provide the financial resources, the flexibility, the support, so that these athletes, regardless of where they’re ranked, but particularly those who earn less, will have that agency ... to decide when and how they want to start their families,” Archer said.

And, Azarenka said, this could lead some players to decide to become parents before retiring from the sport for good.

“Every feedback we’ve heard from players who are mothers — or who are not mothers — is like, ‘Wow, this is an incredible opportunity for us,’” said 2012-13 Australian Open champion Azarenka, whose son, Leo, is 8. “I believe it’s really going to change the conversation in sports. But going beyond sports, it’s a global conversation, and I’m happy that we're (part of it).”

Other steps the WTA has taken in recent years to benefit players include steering more women into coaching, implementing safeguarding, attempting to stem cyberbullying, and increasing prize money with an eye to pay that equals what men receive in the sport.

The Public Investment Fund, or PIF, became the WTA's global partner last year, after much public debate — Hall of Famers Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova were among the critics — over questions about LGBTQ+ and women’s rights in Saudi Arabia.

The kingdom now hosts the season-ending WTA Finals and an ATP event for rising stars of men's tennis. The PIF sponsors the WTA and ATP rankings.

“We wouldn’t have been able to provide the benefits were it not for this relationship and the funding that PIF provides,” Archer said.

In golf, which like tennis is an individual sport without guaranteed salaries, the LPGA introduced an updated maternity leave policy in 2019 that lets athletes have the same playing status when they return.

In soccer, both the NWSL and the U.S. women’s national team have collective bargaining agreements that allow for pregnancy leave and parental leave; the NWSL pays the full base salary while an athlete is pregnant.

In basketball, the WNBA's CBA guarantees full pay during maternity leave.

For tennis, Azarenka said, the PIF WTA Maternity Fund Program is “just the beginning.”

“It's an incredible beginning. Monumental change," she said. "But I think we can look into how we can expand this fund for bigger, better things.”

___

AP Sports Writers Doug Feinberg, Doug Ferguson and Anne M. Peterson contributed to this report.

https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory ... -119513770

[ti-amie]

[Owendonovan]

When do the Saudi's come in and create a new tour?

The Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) has filed lawsuits against major tennis organizations, including the ATP and WTA, alleging antitrust violations and exploitation of players.
The PTPA, which claims support from over 250 players, argues that these organizations act as a "cartel" to limit player earnings and control the tennis schedule.
The lawsuit specifically criticizes the organizations for capping prize money, restricting off-court earning opportunities, and implementing a demanding tournament schedule that jeopardizes player health.
The PTPA also accuses the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) of employing overly aggressive and intrusive investigative tactics, including excessive drug testing and invasive searches.

The Professional Tennis Players Association sued several organizations, including the ATP, WTA and International Tennis Federation, likening them to a "cartel," alleging several antitrust violations, systemic abuse, collusion to reduce competition, exploiting players financially, and forcing athletes to play an unsustainable schedule.

Court documents filed in New York City, London and Brussels and obtained by USA TODAY Sports, name 22 players, including Vasek Pospisil, Nick Kyrgios, Sorana Cirstea and Reilly Opelka as plaintiffs, who demand a jury trial.

"Tennis is broken," Ahmad Nassar, executive director of the PTPA, said in a statement. "Behind the glamorous veneer that the Defendants promote, players are trapped in an unfair system that exploits their talent, suppresses their earnings, and jeopardizes their health and safety. We have exhausted all options for reform through dialogue, and the governing bodies have left us no choice but to seek accountability through the courts."

The Professional Tennis Players Association, which was co-founded by 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic and Pospisil in 2019, says their mandate is to unite and mobilize "tennis players to foster transparency and fairness in professional tennis."

The 162-page lawsuit filed Wednesday details some of those complaints and the PTPA says they are backed by more than 250 players, many of whom are ranked in the top 20.

"Defendants do so by capping the prize money tournaments award and limiting players' ability to earn money off the court," the lawsuit says. "Rather than being determined by market forces, players’ earnings are instead subject to limitations agreed upon by the defendants and their co-conspirators."

Another grievance in the lawsuit is the tour schedule, which the lawsuit says the men's tour, the ATP, "schedules an annual slate of over 60 tournaments in which male players play," leaving little time to rest and recover.

"Defendants do so by capping the prize money tournaments award and limiting players’ ability to earn money off the court. Rather than being determined by market forces, players’ earnings are instead subject to limitations agreed upon by the defendants and their co-conspirators."

The lawsuit says that four Grand Slam tournaments, the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open, are co-conspirators with the defendants who use the tournaments "to enrich themselves at the players’ expense, to the detriment of fans and the game."

The International Tennis Integrity Agency, which says it tries to safeguard tennis to make sure the sport is free from corruption and doping, is also a defendant in the case.

"The ITIA’s aggressive, unrelenting, and, at times, illegal investigative processes subject players to dozens of drug tests (both blood and urine), invasive searches of their personal cell phones, hours-long interrogations without counsel, and harassment by unaccountable and ill-trained investigators," the lawsuit says.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/t ... 516435007/