Judgement, Responsibility and Decisions

by Savannah

Sports associations of all kinds usually wait until the end of a yearly cycle, their season, to make changes. It's always been presented as a meeting where a group of people steeped in all the lore of their sport sit down and after a review of the season, good and bad, decide to make changes, or not to make changes, to assist in the promotion of their particular sport.


© EPA

That is why what happened in Linz, Austria is so perplexing. Over at 10sballs.com I found the clearest explanation of what happened.

First top seed, Petra Kvitova pulled out on Saturday with a lower back injury. Under WTA rules, once the qualifying had started, only a Lucky Loser could replace a non wild card such as Kvitova.

Kerber, who is just a handful of points behind Jelena Jankovic in the Race to the WTA Championships, wanted in after she lost in the quarters of Beijing. Apparently, she had applied for a wild card a week before Linz was about to start, which is within the rules.


But the only way that the tournament could get Kerber into the main draw on Sunday just before Monday’s order of play was to released, was to have one of its other wild cards withdraw, which very rarely occurs.

Apparently, Tournament Director Sandra Reichel approached No. 337 ranked Lisa -Maria Moser of Austria, and asked her to withdraw. Moser then did so for “personal reasons.” Had she withdrawn for medial reason, the tournament would not have been allowed to replace her with anyone but a Lucky Loser.

Moser was given a wild card into doubles in which the tournament described in an official statement as “a small compensation.” That statement indicates that tournament took an end-around when it came to tour rules

“Angie is totally happy, Reichel said. “And for me, this is of course also great of still being able to invite a top 10 player at such short notice. ”

(...)

However, Ana Ivanovic, who was the second seed at the bottom half of the draw but was moved into the top section as the No. 3 seed, wasn’t thrilled. She is now in second seed Sloane Stephens half of the draw.

Kerber is the top seed, but is in the bottom half.

“One of those things when you realize you’re powerless… No matter what they say! #linzdraw” Ivanovic tweeted.

As a top 10 player, Kerber normally would not be allowed to play her third WTA International Series event, which Linz is, but she is being allowed to do so because when she played the Washington DC International Series tournament this summer she did so because the Premier Level event in Carlsbad, California, was oversubscribed.

All together now: WHAT. THE. FUCK?!

Here's the original draw:

[1] STEPHENS, Sloane USA vs RYBARIKOVA, Magdalena SVK
PETKOVIC, Andrea GER vs MEUSBURGER, Yvonne AUT
WC MOSER, Lisa-Maria AUT vs VOEGELE, Stefanie SUI
KNAPP, Karin ITA vs [7] HANTUCHOVA, Daniela SVK

[4] FLIPKENS, Kirsten BEL vs WICKMAYER, Yanina BEL
PLISKOVA, Karolina CZE vs SCHIAVONE, Francesca ITA
BEGU, Irina-Camelia ROU vs QUALIFIER
BECK, Annika GER vs [6] CIBULKOVA, Dominika SVK

[8] ZAKOPALOVA, Klara CZE vs VEKIC, Donna CRO
GOERGES, Julia GER vs QUALIFIER
SVITOLINA, Elina UKR vs BARTHEL, Mona GER
QUALIFIER vs [3] SUAREZ NAVARRO, Carla ESP

[5] CIRSTEA, Sorana ROU vs WC MAYR-ACHLEITNER, Patricia AUT
QUALIFIER vs QUALIFIER
CADANTU, Alexandra ROU vs WC KLAFFNER, Melanie AUT
NICULESCU, Monica ROU vs [2] IVANOVIC, Ana SRB

Here is the new draw:

[2] STEPHENS, Sloane USA vs RYBARIKOVA, Magdalena SVK
PETKOVIC, Andrea GER vs MEUSBURGER, Yvonne AUT
ZAKOPALOVA, Klara CZE vs VOEGELE, Stefanie SUI
KNAPP, Karin ITA vs [8] HANTUCHOVA, Daniela SVK

[3] IVANOVIC, Ana SRB vs WICKMAYER, Yanina BEL
PLISKOVA, Karolina CZE vs SCHIAVONE, Francesca ITA
BEGU, Irina-Camelia ROU vs QUALIFIER
BECK, Annika GER vs [7] CIBULKOVA, Dominika SVK

[5] FLIPKENS, Kirsten BEL vs VEKIC, Donna CRO
GOERGES, Julia GER vs QUALIFIER
SVITOLINA, Elina UKR vs BARTHEL, Mona GER
QUALIFIER vs [4] SUAREZ NAVARRO, Carla ESP

[6] CIRSTEA, Sorana ROU vs WC MAYR-ACHLEITNER, Patricia AUT
QUALIFIER vs QUALIFIER
CADANTU, Alexandra ROU vs WC KLAFFNER, Melanie AUT
NICULESCU, Monica ROU vs [1] WC KERBER, Angelique GER

Now let's look at the current standings for the WTA YEC in Istanbul, the last year it will be played in that city.

Serena Williams (USA) 12040
Victoria Azarenka (BLR) 7676
Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) 5890
Li Na (CHN) 5120
Petra Kvitova (CZE) 4370
Sara Errani (ITA) 4190
Jelena Jankovic (SRB) 3860
Angelique Kerber (GER) 3505
Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)3300
Sloane Stephens (USA) 3185
Roberta Vinci (ITA) 3170

Jelena Jankovic is officially into the YEC since Maria Sharapova's withdrawal was made official on Monday.

Once again, WHAT. THE. FUCK???!!!

As it stands now if Kerber wins she's into the YEC because she's played one more International tournament than everyone else. She wasn't scheduled to play this week and Caroline Wozniacki, 205 points behind Kerber, isn't scheduled to play until next week in Luxembourg. If I'm Wozniacki I've got Stacey Allaster on blast. As you all know I've dragged Sunshine a lot in this space but this is some totally shady shit and Allaster has so far been silent.

My question is simple. Since the precedent has now been set that you can change a draw AFTER it's been made AND throw out a player who had previously been part of that draw and demote a seed to unseeded what stops a player, any player, from demanding that same right? The part about it being okay since she played her second International because Carlsbad was oversubscribed is bullshit. WTA players have already spoken out about it.

I say shame on you WTA. Someone at the top should've said no to this scheme. And what happens if after all this Kerber loses early? But why should we care? The TD is happy that "Angie" is happy. I'd be too if I'd bogarted my way into an event, got the top seeding, got placed in the BOTTOM half of the draw AND got a cakewalk draw while my biggest opponents slug it out in the top half.

And the WTA had been doing so well...

With Ranking Comes Responsibility

Tennis is an individual sport. The man or woman who is ranked at the top of the heap basks in media spotlight and gets perks only hinted at in the "tennis press". But with that rank comes responsibility. You are the face of your sport world wide. It's not like being a star baseball player like Yasiel Puig and it's a little less than being Lionel Messi in football. But tennis outside of the United States is a major sport and the kids trying to claw their way to the top look to the top ranked players for guidance in how to conduct themselves.
That is what a number one ranked player in tennis is supposed to do.

So you can imagine my surprise when the following quotes came out of Beijing, China. Emphasis mine. Via ASAPSports

Q. Two days ago we received a statement from Viktor Troicki, from his agent, I don't know, saying you have been the first one to sign a petition about a new rules for the doping process. Can you say if it's right and can you tell us more details about the protocols about that?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, the whole case around Viktor is just very unfair towards him. I believe that he's innocent. He hasn't been charged for being positive on any kind of substance. He was just accused of failing to provide the blood test that day.

You know, I know him since I was eight years old. We grew up together. He's one of my best friends. There is no doubt in my mind that he's innocent. I supported him from the first moment.

I think that knowing that now it's coming up, the date, 9th of October he has an appeal in Lausanne. I hope that he's going to be discharged and he's going to be able to play, because he's definitely not guilty.

What happened in that room on this day, for me, it's very clear that he is supposed to play. That's it. I leave the authorities to deal with that, but I'm confident that he's going to come back on the tour, hopefully already in the next couple weeks, and he's going to be with us in Davis Cup final, because we wish him that.

I don't see why they're keeping him suspended. For what? For failing to provide the blood test? He asked the lady that day, you know, he's not feeling well. Can I provide you tomorrow? She said, Yes, if you write report.

He wrote the report, and the next thing you know she's failing to say the truth in the court in London. She was saying that he was convincing him, that it took her 20 minutes to walk from anti‑doping office to the ATP office in Monte‑Carlo tournament, which is 20 meters. So she was lying a lot.

That's very bad for our sport. That's very bad for anti‑doping agency, you know, to have people who are responsible for this work to fail to say what really happened that day.
There was another person present in the room that day that wrote a perfect English on the report, and then in the court in London he didn't understand a single word.

So the reason why I was the first one to write a petition for the rule change is to try to spread the awareness to the people around that obviously there is‑‑ it all comes down to who said what and who believes in who, you know what I mean?

It's just not fair towards the players, because there has to be I guess technology or a camera or an additional person in the room while you're doing the test, because then ‑‑ the player has no really rights. Maybe he's trying get as much proof that he can, but in the end it's his word against the word of the people who are authorized.

Let's talk about what Viktor Troicki is said to have done. He REFUSED to provide a blood sample when asked. He decided that he wanted to give the sample the next day. So lets imagine a sports world where a player is asked to provide a sample and refuses but names the day he feels he will be able to provide said sample. Would we have random drug tests anymore? In this day and age when even I know there are ways to flush illicit substances out of your system the entire concept of drug testing would become a joke. I mean Lance Armstrong would still be a seven time Tour de France champion if he could've told the folks who do drug testing when they could take a sample.

That is what makes the comments disturbing. Doesn't he have PR people? How could he, a man who is admired by many around the world, make a statement like that without considering the ramifications? Even some members of the press wanted to know why there were no follow up questions and vowed to ask some in Shanghai. I hope they do. I understand supporting a friend in private. I don't understand how a top player can imply that it's the player, not the anti doping agency, who decides when, where and how he or she should be tested.

End Notes

I don't think anyone involved in the Linz draw or who does publicity for Djokovic should get off easy. The Linz controversy is not going to go away and I think Ms Allaster has to say something. Maybe that line of horse manure about overbooking came from her minions. I don't know. Then again FluffyGate has never been adequately addressed. Both the player and the chair umpire have continued as if nothing happened. If officials break the rules why should the players obey them?

I'm waiting for those promised follow up questions in Shanghai. If and when they come they'll probably be tweeted before the official transcript comes out. At least I hope so. For a top player to come out and advocate for the right of the player to refuse a sample on request is controversial to say the least.

Lets see if after the YEC and WTF something is done by the tours.