French Open 2021, 24 May- 13 June

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Re: French Open 2021, 24 May- 13 June

Post by prasen9 »

There is no question that the authorities want to bundle both the tennis and the interview part. Obviously, Osaka does not want it. She does not need to put up with it. She can just walk away and she is exercising that. She did say that she had the money to pay the fines and so she wanted to play on her own terms. But, the WTA figured out that the fines won't work. They threatened her saying that they would kick her out. Now that things were escalated, she decided it is not worth it and left. Good for her. If she does not want to put up with that, she should just do what she wants. I think her sister retired early from tennis in March saying she was not enjoying her tennis. Naomi should do the same if the WTA, etc. will not let her play without doing the media. It would be perfectly fine to have additional pay for doing the media. But, there is no reason to bundle. Maybe if anyone has the numbers or the reason why the TV broadcasters would want to not have one of the tennis players play tennis unless she is available for the interview, it would be good to know. Contracts are contracts. They can be renegotiated. Or Naomi can sit out until these current contracts are done with. If she has to retire because of this, she should try to build up player opinion and create a separate organization, etc. to break this meaningless bundling. This reminds me of Microsoft illegally bundling the Netscape browser with the OS. Unfortunately, it took a long while for the E.U. to hold them accountable. The U.S. did not really care. And, by that time, the market had moved on. Generally, bundling goes hand in hand with monopolies, which the WTA is, and the slams are all colluding together as in oligopolies. I do not know if there is a legal case that can be made on this at the CAS though. I hope there is.
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Re: French Open 2021, 24 May- 13 June

Post by Atithee »

I’d love to read a book called “The world according to Dr. Mitra.” :D
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Re: French Open 2021, 24 May- 13 June

Post by prasen9 »

:-)
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Re: French Open 2021, 24 May- 13 June

Post by jai_in_canada »

I didn't see the discussion here, so I posted the following in the ATP thread where Kumar had posted the news.

"I feel sorry for Naomi Osaka for dealing with depression. At the same time, if she is not feeling fit to complete all aspects of her contract with tournaments then she should not have played at all. She can't just pick and choose what parts of the job she wants to do, or ask for changes in terms and conditions. What's next? Would want 3 minutes sit down between games because it takes longer for her to recover? What if Nadal she wants the serve clock to be expended to 35 seconds? What if another player only wants to play at night because she has a skin condition that makes her allergic to Sunlight? There are players who have had to curtail their tennis career because of mental health issues. Rebecca Marino and Mardy Fish come to mind. I hope Naomi Osaka gets treatment for her depression and is back on tour soon. But meanwhile it is not fair to other players or manageable for tournaments to be dispensing special exemptions for players based on their individual afflictions."

Honestly, I don't really care about the post-match press conferences. I hardly ever watch them. And when I do I am bored very quickly and turn them off. They are mostly inane questions and canned answers. Still, if it is part of the job, then Naomi needs to do it. Imagine if I had said to my employer, I don't feel like attending this important meeting because I am depressed. Just send me the minutes.
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Re: French Open 2021, 24 May- 13 June

Post by prasen9 »

The question really is: is that part of the job? I understand she signed a contract. She could not fulfil it and so she dropped out. Fine.

For the future, I think the contract should be changed. Not only for her but also for everyone else. The two things: playing tennis and appearing in the media are different things that are bundled together in this contract. All your other examples are related to things that happen during the game itself. And, debate about all these things is fine. If a 3 minute break improves the game of tennis itself in that participants are able to play better tennis, then a cost-benefit analysis should be done and such breaks should be allowed. If not, not. The serve clock should be whatever the community thinks is fair and reasonable and it should be implemented. Note that these two are during the game itself and cannot be severed. You have to have some number for break duration and some number for serve clock.

Wrt playing only at night, that is an interesting question. This is akin to a TUE, etc. If a drug is medically needed *and* it does not seriously give someone an exaggerated advantage, then it is allowed. My position would be to allow that player to only play at night if it is medically determined that the allergy is real. And, a study shows that such an accommodation is not a serious advantage to the player. If it is, it should not be allowed. The issue here is that by not allowing the player to play at night, we are preventing the player from participating in the game of tennis itself. It should be done only if it is an undue disadvantage. If not, accommodations should be made on medical reasons.

In this case, the two things are completely severable. The media interview is not an integral part of tennis, the game. If someone provides a medical reason, no other player will be severely advantaged or disadvantaged if the player is allowed an exemption. All players who have certified medical exemptions should be allowed not to participate in the interview. But, they have to go through some independent verification of the disability.

As a second option, not as preferred as my first one, I could support substantial financial incentives assuming that the media can show substantial losses due to people not appearing in media interviews. The incentives will be given to those who will participate in media interviews. What this will do is that most players will participate to get the higher paycheck. Make it a lot of easy money. Those who are really mentally hampered will forego the extra pay.

There are better ways to handling this that are more rational and more humane. The WTA and Grand Slams messed up. Maybe they are contractually bound to do this. But, between now and the next Grand Slam, they should renegotiate their contracts with the media and figure out a fair way to accommodate players with mental issues.

I hope Naomi sues under some disability act in whatever country these entities are incorporated (assuming they are in some such country). It would be fun to see the WTA and the Grand Slams defend their stance. :-)
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Re: French Open 2021, 24 May- 13 June

Post by jai_in_canada »

I think it is ultimately the sponsors & TV/streaming channels that require the players to do press conferences. There is product placement, like the strategically placed water bottle on the table in front of the player, the clothing logo on the hat/shirt etc. All the aspects of the tournament -- serve clock, time between change overs, bathroom breaks, treatment breaks, participation in on court interview for the winner, participation in off court press conferences by both winner and loser, start times (Australian Open day games can be hot, night games can go very late), -- have evolved over time with commercial interests and viewership in mind. There are benefits to the sponsors, broadcasters, tournaments and players. If a player is unable or unwilling to comply with any of the conditions of participating in a tournament then they should have a conversation with the tournament organizers. Not unilaterally announce it on Twitter simply because they are mega super star. There is culpability all around in this fiasco. But tennis has evolved from white dress only to allowing colour, and now there are tournaments with no linespersons. So this too will cause all the stakeholders to think about stuff and evolve.

I am enjoying the drama.

P.S. I wonder if the Djokovic-Pospisil-lead PTPA will get involved in this. They have formed ostensibly to address player concerns. So far I think they have focused more on the inequity of prize money distribution. But looks like players have many grievances. The old traditional guard running the tournaments might be out of touch or insensitive to the challenges faced by players today. Especially the four Grand Slams - and especially especially Wimbledon and French Open.
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Re: French Open 2021, 24 May- 13 June

Post by prasen9 »

Agree fully. I want Naomi to run with this for the conflict it creates. Question everything. Break it up and rebuild it. It will perhaps be stronger and better.

My favorite icon is Narada. A storyteller who carries news and does a lot more ;-)
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Re: French Open 2021, 24 May- 13 June

Post by suresh »

[R1] Rohan Bopanna/Franko Skugor (IND/CRO) d. Andre Begemann/Nikoloz Bashilashvili (GER/GEO) 6-4 6-2
Last edited by suresh on Tue Jun 01, 2021 2:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: French Open 2021, 24 May- 13 June

Post by PKBasu »

Bopanna/Skugor won their R1 match against Begemann/Basilashvili 64 62.

Suresh beat me to it :p
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Re: French Open 2021, 24 May- 13 June

Post by Rajiv »

Saw the match,and even though Rohan is 6'3 he looked much smaller to his giant partner, who not only packed huge power but was equally agile and flexible with the low balls and his net play.
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Re: French Open 2021, 24 May- 13 June

Post by Sanjay »

sameerph wrote: Sat May 29, 2021 12:49 pm
Sanjay wrote: Fri May 28, 2021 9:25 pm Well, just because the US has fallen from the majestic heights of the 90s, does not in any way make India's pathetic performance from the 90s onwards any better. After Vijay and Ramesh, we have been very bad in singles. We did well in Doubles with Lee, Mahesh and Sania which we did not have earlier. Vijay/Anand did not win much in doubles in the 70s. But after these phases, we are left with nothing right now.
Sanjay, my only point was about your statment that Indian tennis is mediocore right now. If it is mediocore now, it has been mediocore for about 25-30 years now and in fact it is better than where it was in 2000's. No need to despair just based on this French open results.

To me the only real disappointment here was Sumit's loss to Tabilo in straight sets. Tabilo got thrashed in next round by Spanish Phenom Alcarez.

Other 3 Indians were not expected to qualify. All 3 of them lost to player who finally qualfied for the main draw. So, one can say there were a bit unlucky to draw those players and the scorelines in losses were not good.
I fully agree with you. After VA and RK, we have been generally bad in singles though we had a good time in doubles for quite some years. I wish we had another Sania, she was good and could have gone on to more.

It's just depressing that we have no one to look to other than Sumit and he isn't making the progress to break into the Top 100 just yet. Let's see.
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Re: French Open 2021, 24 May- 13 June

Post by PKBasu »

Sumit is still in the early stages of his career. He has not been too injury-prone. This year has been a disappointment for him on clay, but his ranking will improve once the 2019 points are removed (in August?).

I would also point out that Sania did have a good singles career for 5 years -- staying in the top-50 for most of that period, despite injuries. She has been our best singles player since Ramesh Krishnan, and of course the first Indian woman to be in the top-100 and top-50.
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Re: French Open 2021, 24 May- 13 June

Post by PKBasu »

Delbonis/Sharan have won the first set 6-3 against de Minaur/Reed. Delbonis was back on court within an hour or so of the end of his marathon 5-setter against Andujar. Let's hope our all-left-handed team finishes the job in the second set.
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Re: French Open 2021, 24 May- 13 June

Post by sameerph »

Divij and Delbonis could not convert number of match points in second set tie break and eventually lost it 11-13 .

Ankita and Davis lost the first set 4-6.
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Re: French Open 2021, 24 May- 13 June

Post by PKBasu »

Sharan/Delbonis also had match-point on their serve earlier in the second set, but couldn't convert. They lost the second set tiebreak and then were broken at 4-5 in the final set. Out :-(

Ankita and partner lost 46 46 to the 10th seeds.
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