Tennis legend Martina Navratilova has castigated the Girls’s Tennis Affiliation (WTA) for “an entire bunch of unhealthy choices” over their ill-fated Finals occasion in Cancun, and prompt {that a} girl must take over from embattled chief govt Steve Simon.
The world’s eight greatest gamers ought to have already got concluded their season-ending event, however as an alternative Iga Swiatek is scheduled to play Jessica Pegula on Monday evening in Mexico, after per week of torrential rain and gale-force winds has delayed matches and turned the showpiece occasion right into a laughing inventory.
Social media has been stuffed with movies displaying the likes of Coco Gauff wanting doleful as her umbrella blew inside out, or Elena Rybakina laughing bitterly as her ball toss was snatched by the wind. In the meantime spectators have been reporting that the lights had fused in sure elements of the venue, together with the bogs, which additionally had no operating water.
The rapidly constructed stadium went up in a matter of weeks after Cancun was confirmed because the venue for the occasion in early September. Then, as quickly because the gamers arrived, the likes of world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka instantly declared themselves to be sad with the practise circumstances. Their collective temper can hardly have improved as soon as they made it onto the match courtroom and found a wide range of unpredictable bounces.
“Possibly it’s time for brand spanking new management,” mentioned Navratilova in an interview with Amazon Prime. “For me personally, this being a girl’s affiliation and being concerned for such a very long time from the start, we’ve solely had two girls on the head of it. I feel it’s time, hopefully, once we get a brand new chief, that it’s a girl.
“There’s loads of them which can be certified for the job. It’s going to be onerous for Steve to remain within the job in some way as a result of every thing is pointing the opposite means proper now.
“The gamers adjusted [to the conditions]. They needed to. However to come back to Cancun within the wet season? You can’t be hoping it’s not going to rain on the premier occasion for the WTA Tour.
“It’s important to personal the unhealthy choices you made and make some decisions after that … There was a sequence of unhealthy choices. Finally, Steve Simon has been the boss for eight years and right here we’re.”
Final week, Simon wrote a letter to the gamers through which he mentioned that Cancun had been chosen due to “plenty of difficult elements”. A type of – insiders consider – is that the Mexican organisers have been proud of a one-year deal, whereas the choice Czech bid needed to host the Finals for longer. The WTA are regarded as eager on a multi-year Finals cope with Saudi Arabia from 2024 onwards, though this is able to be controversial in view of the Saudi regime’s insurance policies on girls’s rights.
Based on Polish No 2 Magda Linette, who sits on the WTA gamers council, there was additionally a priority that the Czech authorities may refuse visas to Russian and Belarusian gamers due to the struggle in Ukraine. “The drawback in Ostrava,” Linette mentioned final week, “was that we didn’t have a 100 per cent assure that every one the women would be capable to play.”
Simon’s letter acknowledged discontent inside the participant group. “It’s clear you aren’t proud of the choice to be right here in Cancun,” he mentioned. “I perceive that and you’ve got been heard … It isn’t an ideal occasion, we perceive the circumstances are a problem and the WTA accepts duty for that.”
Navratilova clearly believes that Simon ought to go additional and settle for private duty by standing down. However when Simon was invited to talk to broadcasters Amazon Prime concerning the event final week, he declined.
One different knock-on impact of the WTA’s selection of Cancun is that a number of gamers – together with Swiatek, Gauff and Pegula – have opted to not take part on this week’s Billie Jean King Cup finals in Seville. The issue of travelling, reacclimatising and overcoming jet-lag would have been too nice, even with out the 24-hour delay that has stored Swiatek and Pegula in Cancun till this night.
Such is tennis’ shambolic governance that the BJK Cup is run by a wholly completely different physique: the Worldwide Tennis Federation. To the gamers’ chagrin, there was little or no collaboration over scheduling between the 2 organisations.
 for “a whole bunch of bad decisions” over their ill-fated Finals event in Cancun, and suggested that a woman ought to take over from embattled chief executive Steve Simon.){kind=link}