For the better part of a decade, Tatjana Maria, the veteran German player, has been crammed into cramped hotel rooms with her husband/coach and children, or using her own money to pay for bigger while she travels the world with her family so she can be a full-time mom and professional tennis player.
In 2018, CoCo Vandeweghe played most of the season on a broken leg to avoid fines for missing mandatory tournaments. The injury led to a syndrome that left him unable to walk and nearly ended his career.
With no guaranteed salary, in 2019, Danielle Collins shelled out money she didn’t really have and didn’t know she’d earn back to help cover the costs of a full-time coach, physiotherapist and hitting partner to try to break through. in the upper echelon of a sport that has largely existed for 50 years with an eat-what-you-kill model.
Today, most of the world’s best tennis players have had all that, with the feeling that they are being treated as hired help for an organization, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), rather than the star attractions that fans buy. tickets and tune in to television to see.
Boiling for a long time tthe encounters between the top players and the leaders of their pro tour began in Cancun, Mexico, at the WTA Tour Finals. The tipping point is a stadium court in the supposed signature event of their sport that they considered unpredictable and unsafe. It is also not ready for practice until the day before the event begins.
Players pose with the trophy in Cancun before the tournament (Robert Prange/Getty Images)
This fight, the players say, is about the big ideas — respect, equality, hearing and listening — that often lie at the foundation of athletes’ rebellions. In three and a half weeks, Steve Simon, the WTA’s chief executive, issued a request from the top players for a written response to a long list of requested improvements in everything from compensation and the calendar tennis to tournament operations and maternity coverage.
“These questions have been building for years and now we’re seeing the results of not answering them,” said Bethanie Mattek-Sands, the doubles specialist and former member of the WTA Players’ Council, who now is head of the new players’ organization. , the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA). “We put Band-Aids on things instead of making real changes.”
The players have long resisted a meaningful collective action, but no more. The recent list of “requests” (unsolicited, for now) of 21 top players, including most of those ranked in the top 20, submitted in early October covers four areas: the schedule, terms of eligibility and criteria for contests, payments, and representation.
Some give easily, while others, especially those involving money, are not so simple because there is a limit to how much it needs to grow. Media rights fees for women’s tennis are about one-seventh of those for the men’s tour. That means the WTA contributes less financial support for each tournament, resulting in lower prize money, which makes up the bulk of the revenue for all but the top players who enjoy broad portfolios. endorsement. At this year’s Italian Open, the men competed for $8.5million, while the women competed for $3.9million. At the ASB Classic in Auckland in January, the men’s champion, Richard Gasquet, received nearly $98,000. The women’s champion, Coco Gauff, took home just over $34,000.
Misogyny, a softer market, less exposure and less interest in women’s sports, as well as basic incompetence, are all to blame here to varying degrees depending on who you talk to.
In the schedule, players are increasingly looking for more flexibility. They want more time between the largest and medium-sized events. They want fewer mandatory events, which can lead to unhealthy pressure on injured players to participate. They want more opportunities to play at small events and exhibitions, which come with appearance fees.
In terms of qualification rules and tournament standards, players want to lower the entry deadline for tournaments to three weeks instead of four, more opportunities to withdraw from a tournament without penalty, and lower fines for to skip mandatory events. They want to end matches starting late at night or without enough recovery time and new rules on early round byes and wild card entries. They want childcare services at all large and mid-sized tournaments, larger hotel rooms for players traveling with families, and a voice in evaluating the performance of running a tournament.
Elena Rybakina applauds the fans in Cancun (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
They are also seeking a change from a strict pay-for-play format to a form of guaranteed compensation for the top 250 players: $500,000 for players in the top 100, $200,000 for the next 75, and $100,000 for others. The proposed compensation system would include injury protection, providing half of the minimum salary if a player misses six months.
In case of pregnancy and childbirth, a player will receive protection for two years. They want a bonus pool for top players, a guaranteed percentage of a tournament’s earnings, and the ability to review the financial records of each tournament. They want a PTPA member to attend all the organization’s Players Council meetings, with full access to all player areas in all tournaments, so that their needs and aspirations are never neglected.
That omission became public on Monday night, along with details of two tense meetings between players and tour leaders. Finally, the tour’s embattled CEO wrote to the top 20 players late Monday to convey the message that he understands the dissatisfaction with playing conditions in Cancun and that he is working on addressing their larger concerns.
The question now is whether Simon and other leaders can triage to quell the current revolt and commit to the kinds of changes that top players are demanding to ensure the survival of the WTA Tour.
“In my experience, when this happens, it’s always related to voice, that players don’t feel like their voices matter, that they feel like there’s an imbalance of power that’s been removed,” said Pam Shriver. , the retired player , coach and commentator who became president of the WTA in the 1990s. “I understand why they’re upset.”
The WTA declined to provide a copy of Simon’s letter. On Monday, the tour released a statement saying: “Pthe layers are always equal decision makers to ensure a strong direction for women’s tennis.”
The players disagree. Earlier this year, Spain’s Paula Badosa, who last year rose to No 2 in the world rankings, expressed her frustration at the lack of communication between the WTA’s management, which includes full-time staff , tournament directors, and player representatives, and the players themselves. Rule changes and financial decisions regarding major issues, such as prize money, are rarely explained.
“They are not informing us,” said Badosa, who is on the PTPA board. “They say this is what you get and you have to play.”
Vandeweghe, who retired earlier this year and is now an analyst for the Tennis Channel, said he was heartened to see players feeling empowered to speak more freely with their officials. sport and demand the kind of transparency that will allow them to better understand their business and the roles they play in it. His memories of the pain he played through — so he could have enough money to support his career and avoid being fined for withdrawing from mandatory tournaments — are raw and real.
He reached No 9 in the world, then, in an instant, lost everything, including his income, as he tried to manage the financial burden of treatments, rehabilitation, and physical therapy. A peaceful layoff with temporary disability pay could have changed everything, he said, and it was something worth fighting for.
“It’s like a family feud,” he said of the escalating conflict between top players and tour leaders. “You have quarrels here or there, but now it comes down to very small things.”
Mattek-Sands, the longtime pro and former member of the WTA Players Council who is now head of the PTPA, said she used to sit in meetings with tour leaders and wonder what pro tennis would look like if it could they start it all. again. The more he questions, the more he realizes his sport needs radical changes.
Maria Sakkari in action in Cancun (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
In a letter to Simon last week, Ahmad Nassar, the PTPA’s executive director, said that “the organization will explore all alternatives in our relentless effort to do better on behalf of the players who make it awesome this game”. Nassar is no more specific than that. He doesn’t have to be.
Nassar went on to say that the current system, with both organizations trying to accommodate the often clashing interests of tournament organizers and players, is doomed.
“There is a broad wave of athlete empowerment sweeping through sports,” Nassar wrote. “It would be wise for all of us to embrace it and ride it instead of trying to avoid it in vain.”
(Top image: Getty Images)
