STORM OVER SEXIST DRAW
ATP in grovelling apology as players are forced into catwalk show with models
Tennis found itself engulfed by a sexism row yesterday after the draw ceremony for a major new event turned into something resembling a Bunga Bunga party.
High profile women in the game such as Judy Murray and Amelie Mauresmo were outraged as players at the inaugural next Gen finals were forced to pick out female models at sunday night’s opening ceremony in Milan.
There were recriminations as the ATP Tour and sponsors Red Bull were forced to issue a fulsome apology over how the two round robin groups were selected for the eight-player tournament, which starts today.
senior tour officials were furious, as years have been spent trying to put together an event which will trial a host of innovations which are widely seen as crucial to the development of the sport at professional level. At the cringe-inducing draw, the likes of rising Canadian star Denis shapovalov were forced to pick out a model backstage before emerging on to a catwalk in front of a live audience.
shapovalov’s ‘ partner’ then lifted up a garter beneath her lace skirt to reveal the letter ‘A’ on her thigh, meaning that he had been placed in Group A.
The model accompanying young American Jared Donaldson went through a grinding manoeuvre with him before dragging him off into Group B.
With the players — the leading Under 21 performers of the ATP season — looking ill at ease, the condemnation was swift and widespread.
Murray described it as ‘ awful’ and Mauresmo, ex-world no 1 and Andy Murray’s former coach, labelled it a ‘ disgrace’. Current world no 38 Alize Cornet of France sarcastically tweeted: ‘Good job ATP Tour, supposed to be a futurist event right?’
With parity of prize money at the Grand slams, thee image projected flies in the face of tennis’s reputation as one of the world’s moree enlightened sports when it comes to matters of equality.
The italian Tennis Federation, joint promoters of the tourna-ment with the ATP Tour, were quick to disassociate themselves fromfrom how the draw was conducted.
According to well- placed sources, Red Bull were in charge of the draw concept.
However, as the main driving force behind the event, the ATP Tour are ultimately responsible and clearly someone took their eye off the ball. A joint apology was later forthcoming. ‘ATP and Red Bull apologise for the offence caused by the draw ceremony for the next Gen ATP Finals,’ the statement read. ‘The intention was to integrate Milan’s rich heritage as one of the fashion capitals of the th world. ‘ However, our execution of the proceedings was in poor taste and unacceptable. We deeply regret this and will ensure that there is no repeat of anything like it in the future.’ The episode is unfortunate from a purely tennis viewpoint as the whole intention of next Gen is to be a forward-looking showcase that makes professional tennis more appealing to a fresh and young audience. Many of the ideas are long overdue and look a positive step forward for the sport, especially in trying to make it more attractive to television executives, who find ‘dead’ time such a turn-off.
Among the proposed changes are that play will have to start within five minutes of players walking on court and there will be a 25-second shot clock to cut gaps between points. if a serve hits the net cord and lands in it will be in play, and there will be a sudden death point at deuce in each game. More contentious is having the Hawk-eye system call all the lines with no human assistance bar the umpire.