Racket Business Update Around The World - May 2024

USTA ANNUAL MEETING

Tennis friend A emailed me from the 2024 USTA Annual Meeting in Orlando: “Would you believe it? The first half of the first day they were making us watch Simon Gale give a demo of red ball tennis for adults! For adults? This is nuts! It’s also the weirdest USTA Annual Meeting I have ever been to. No enthusiasm, not excitement.”

Tennis Friend B, probably an NTRP ratings system fan (Yeah!), wasn’t mincing any words when I asked him how the World Tennis Number was discussed at the Annual Meeting. “The WTN is a real sh** show right now. No one trusts their data. Most people don’t like it at all.” Ouch! All that money wasted? Again? Was David Haggerty at the meeting to smooth the waters? Is there a WTN Revolt on the horizon?

PREMIER TOUR

Tennis' powerbrokers have big plans. Their ideas might not be good for the sport.

USA Today reported on April 24:
The overlords of professional tennis have some big plans − big for their pocketbooks, big for their power over the sport and big for a group of players at the top who already enjoy a pretty comfortable life on tour. Big for fans? Big for players trying to break into the top 100? Big for tennis generally as a sport with a robust worldwide following? That remains to be seen − and there’s plenty of reason to be skeptical of the way the four Grand Slam tournaments might be trying to commandeer control over the entire tennis calendar. Read more here.

Tennis’ Grand Slams premium tour plan: More money, equal pay, fewer tournaments

The Athletic reported on April 23:
After months of playing shots off the back foot, the four Grand Slam tournaments have gone on the offensive in the battle for the future of tennis. In meetings with representatives of the men’s ATP and women’s WTA tours last week in London, and with players and agents this week in Madrid, leaders of the Grand Slams have presented their strongest plan yet to reform the current structure of professional tennis. It consists of a premium tour anchored in the four Grand Slams and more top-level combined events, featuring the best players from the ATP and WTA circuits. According to a person briefed on the proposal from the Grand Slams and the ensuing meetings, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect relationships, the details include the following:
Read more here.

Tennis leaders’ crucial London meeting as they search for peace and money

The Athletic reported on April 13:
A little more than a month ago, a series of meetings of the top leaders of tennis ended in acrimony. The heads of the Grand Slams accused the leaders of the tour of undercutting their efforts to reshape the sport by plotting a series of backchannel deals with Saudi Arabia. Now, another summit is about to get underway. After weeks of virtual discussions, the leaders of the Grand Slams and the men’s and women’s tennis tours will convene in London this week to try to forge some sort of compromise that will solve a series of challenges facing the game. Those problems essentially boil down to this:
Read more here.

DISCRIMINATION

Black Girl Used As ‘Target Practice’ On Mostly White Tennis Team: Lawsuit

The Black Information Network reported on April 2:
A South Carolina mother is suing her daughter’s school district on allegations of racial discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. According to the Atlanta Black Star, Crystal Dozier recently filed a lawsuit against Horry County School District and three white employees at Green C. Floyds High School on behalf of her 17-year-old daughter, who is Black. The lawsuit stems from Dozier’s daughter wanting to join her high school tennis team last year. Krysten Webster, an English teacher at Green C. Floyds who served as the tennis coach, initially declined to put Dozier’s daughter on the team, whose members were all white at the time, the lawsuit alleges. After the mother intervened, Webster allowed Dozier’s daughter to join the team, but she was used by her teammates as “target practice throughout each day’s practice,” according to the lawsuit. Read more here.

SAUDI ARABIA

Martina Navratilova doubles down on Saudi Arabia criticism and makes brutal comparison

Tennis365 reported on April 21:
Martina Navratilova has voiced her annoyance at the WTA Tours decision to move their end-of-season finals in Saudi Arabia and now she has doubled down on that criticism.  The nine-time Wimbledon champion joined forces with her old rival Chris Evert as they urged the WTA not to take the big-money offer that was on the table from Saudi Arabia. Yet the decision was made to move the event to Riyadh, with Navratilova suggesting that decision was akin to playing the tournament in North Korea. Read more here.

Saudi Arabia complete deal to host WTA Finals: The background, the backlash and the money

The Athletic reported April 4:
The women’s professional tennis tour will hold its season-ending WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia for the next three years, marking the latest step in the country’s huge investment in the elite level of the sport. WTA Tour chief executive Steve Simon made the announcement in a statement released on Thursday, following more than a year of discussion with Saudi officials. The WTA was close to a deal with Saudi Arabia last summer but pivoted at the last minute amid public pressure from some of the most prominent women in the sport.
Read more here.

TRANSGENDER WOMEN IN SPORTS

Tennis ace Martina Navratilova hits back at gloating Wisconsin Dem Governor Tony Evers after he vetoed a bill to ban trans athletes playing high school sports, saying: 'Don't our girls deserve safe and fair competition?'

The Daily Mail reported on April 3:
Evers had promised to veto the bill since it was introduced by Republicans in the state legislature and shared a video of himself writing 'not approved' on the bill on Tuesday, before receiving a round of applause from onlookers. He wrote on X, formerly Twitter: 'I just vetoed Republicans’ anti-LGBTQ bill to ban trans and gender nonconforming kids from participating in school sports teams that align with their gender identity. LGBTQ kids deserve our love and respect and support just like any other kid.'

Read more here.

CHEATING

Incarcerated Czech Tennis Federation chief resigned as Tennis Europe President

We reported in March that the Czech Tennis Federation was “embroiled in a massive fraud scandal.” Turns out their former boss Ivo Kaderka is accused of subsidy fraud. ESPN posted March 1st: “According to Czech public radio, a company run by Flegl that organizes various tennis tournaments in the country received money from the federation for overpriced or nonexistent services and that those funds were later transferred to his other companies and family members.” (Czech tennis boss stays in detention amid fraud investigation)

Interestingly, Kaderka was also President of Tennis Europe since 2020 and had to resign from his post recently. (Statement from Tennis Europe)

Another interesting twist in this saga: Tennis Europe had posted last year “In September 2023, Tennis Europe President Ivo Kaderka announced a new phase for the Regional Association’s ‘President’s Fund’, having personally secured sponsorship income destined to provide direct and immediate financial assistance to member nations in need.” Their President’s Fun article outlined which national federation received support and for what.

I am now curious about how this individual "personally secured" the sponsorship funds. Perhaps this will be revealed during the investigation. Additionally, I am questioning why the ITF chose to keep this recent development confidential. Could this be indicative of the alleged corruption that is often associated with the upper echelons of the ITF?

Italian tennis official suspended for 5 1/2 years for corruption breaches

KSL.com reported on April 4:
The International Tennis Integrity Agency says an Italian tennis official has been suspended for 5 1/2 years for multiple corruption breaches. Manuel Guion is a national-level official who has also served as a line judge at ATP challenger level. He admitted to five breaches of the tennis anti-corruption program. They included conspiring to commit a corruption offense, soliciting a player to commit a corruption offense, encouraging tennis betting, and betting on events when officiating at them. Read more here.

Spanish tennis player Aaron Cortes banned to 2039 for corruption

BBC Sport reported on April 10:
A Spanish tennis player has been banned from the sport until 2039 after admitting to 35 corruption charges. Aaron Cortes, 29, fixed the outcome of matches for money, bet on tennis, failed to report corrupt approaches and gave money to tournament officials in exchange for a wildcard, said the International Tennis Integrity Agency. It gave him a 15-year ban and fined him $75,000, of which $56,250 is suspended. Read more here.

Tennis umpire banned for life for manipulating scores and gambling

Tennis.com reported on April 19:
A tennis umpire from Bulgaria was banned for life on Friday for breaking rules related to betting 21 times from 2019-23. Pavel Atanasov admitted charges including manipulating match scores data for betting purposes, gambling on matches and "failure to report corrupt approaches," the International Tennis Integrity Agency said. Atanasov said during the investigation he was paid less than $100 each day for umpiring at low-level International Tennis Federation events. He also was fined $10,000. The ITIA said the ban prevents the former umpire from attending tennis events. Read more here.

THE COMMISH

The Commish saw the below USTA Southwest announcement and felt compelled to make the following statement:

Just saw this on Facebook - USTA Southwest. USTA is going to have one person in charge of increasing the number of officials. I hope he can find enough to meet the needs of the 80,000 coaches and 11 million new players the USTA is going to create in the next year.

This almost sounds like the 12 Days of Christmas - 80,000 coaches, 11 million new players, and a certified official in a pear tree.

The Commish
Everywhere, USA
Pronouns: They/Them

For all our new readers who don’t know about The Commish, our moniker for all anonymous contributions or letters: The Commish is not just one single person, it is a real and true thought experiment of many different entities. That's also why the Commish has no preferred pronouns and you can call the Commish anything and any way you want. Makes no difference to the Commish. The Commish lives in the minds of all tennis professionals, tennis players, tennis organizers, and everyone with a clear and logical thought process.