In this cruel world, no room for mistakes
ANOTHER one bites the bullet.
You blow it, you need balls to ride out the storm.
For saying that women’s pro tennis players “ride on the coattails of the men,” Raymond Moore resigned as CE0/tournament director of the rich BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Los Angeles, CA.
Moore’s sudden exit came amid flak thrown his way from not only several women tennis superstars like Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka but from many executives and netizens as well.
Surely, that was a monumental mess for Moore, who, in his heyday, was one of the game’s most competitive players from South Africa. Charlie Pasarell was among his peers from a notso-distant era when names like Rod Laver and John Newcombe were legends of the sport.
Why did Moore ever say those disparaging, sexist, remarks was beyond comprehension. Was he drunk or something? Was he high on meldonium, the banned drug that had recently caused Maria Sharapova’s fall from grace?
At least when he realized his huge hiccup, Moore promptly acted in accordance with protocol: Quit.
On that note, he’s got balls, you know. While others might have tried to save themselves from the guillotine by justifying their boo-boo with virtual nonsense, not Moore, I tell you. And what did he say again? “In my next life when I come back, I want to be someone in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) because they ride on the coattails of the men. They don’t make any decisions and they are lucky. They are very, very lucky.”
The women pros are lucky because they get the same amount of prize ($1 million at least to the winner) as the men do? He didn’t stop there. “If I was a lady player, I’d go down every night on my knees and thank God that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born, because they have carried this sport.”
That’s absolutely true but why the need to say that—in the open yet?
In his apology, AP said Moore called his comments “in extremely poor taste and erroneous. I am truly sorry for those remarks, and apologize to all the players and WTA as a whole.”
Moore’s resignation was announced by tournament owner Larry Ellison, a billionaire who dangles $7 million in prizes yearly the last 10 years of the BNP Paribas Open.
Life’s cruel. With one slip, one’s dignity goes gutter-bound. Moore is 69.