WTA Tour/Non-India Fed Cup

[Atithee]

Mostly, the rule breakers are the ones who hide behind law and semantics to behave boorishly. I’ve no sympathy for Osaka. Osakas come and go. The game will do quite well without her. She’s doubling down by withdrawing from Wimbledon. Foolish decision.

[Rajiv]

Atithee perfectly said..the authorities are completely right in their decision to stamp out such arrogant behavior.

[prasen9]

I am very happy that Osaka is not taking the bullying by the Grand Slams and picking and choosing what she wants to play and when. Mental health is an important issue and it has to be handled judiciously and not by diktat and power shows by the authorities. It will be fun if she and a few others takes on these monopolies and oligopolies and starts other leagues, etc. Nothing like competition to make people do the right thing.

[Atithee]

All the responses here are pretty predictable.

[jai_in_canada]

I am very happy that Osaka is not taking the bullying by the Grand Slams and picking and choosing what she wants to play and when. Mental health is an important issue and it has to be handled judiciously and not by diktat and power shows by the authorities. It will be fun if she and a few others takes on these monopolies and oligopolies and starts other leagues, etc. Nothing like competition to make people do the right thing.

She can't even do a press conference. Do you think she has the wherewithal to start a competing league? What does it take to start a new league? Ask Mahesh Bhupathi. It requires relentless extroversion, tremendous hard work, unceasing networking, and skilled selling. And even then it is extremely difficult to make a go of it. Forget press conferences, she doesn't even want to do on court post-match interviews as the winner to acknowledge the tournament, ball kids and fans. That's who make her rich. To play and then silently slink out of the stadium is churlish, ungracious and ungrateful. That’s not a personality that can organize a new tournament, let alone a new league. Especially one that can compete with the Grand Slams. She's not taking on monopolies and oligopolies. She's just taking her lollipopies and shrinking into her hideaway.

Look, it’s not easy being a highly visible sports super star if one has severe social anxiety issues. It comes with the job. It must be tough for her. Hopefully she, her team, WTA, ITF, tournaments and sponsors can work something out without compromising fairness to all players, without compromising the interests of all stakeholders, and without weakening tennis. If she thinks that she can socialize her liabilities while capitalizing on her assets, well the other stakeholders will have a say in that. Otherwise it will be arigato & sayonara to the fake Japanese. Tennis will be fine. So will she – she’s already made mega millions. May be that’s the best solution.

[prasen9]

I could agree with most of these except that I think that this saga weakens tennis. Tennis is actually weakened by making it tennis+speaking and taking out perhaps the best young star in women's tennis. Will it survive? Yes. Will it recover? Yes. But, taking out the best player weakens the game at the two slams where she will not be there. The extra requirement actually makes us accept an inferior product on the tennis part by eliminating the best player and requiring additional non-tennis skills. I do not care about the speaking part. I want to watch the best tennis players. The greed and stupidity of the slam organizers is depriving me of that.

There are some managers who are quiet but very effective. Just because she cannot speak in public, does not mean she cannot speak one on one. And, the very fact that she has where she has reached means that she can work hard, etc. So, doing a breakaway league is doable for her. Bhupathi never had the stature and what he was starting was just a business venture. Not a true breakaway league. Of course, it would be easier for people who do not find it difficult to talk in public.

[jai_in_canada]

... I do not care about the speaking part. I want to watch the best tennis players. The greed and stupidity of the slam organizers is depriving me of that.
...

I fully agree with you on that purely as a tennis fan.

However, sometimes I think juicy tidbits emerge or are manufactured by the press conferences to acquire more viewers/followers on line. Like the time Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova went at each other for stealing each other's boyfriend. Or when Nadal accuses Djokovic of being obsessed with titles (like he's not). Or when Kyrgios told Wawrinka that Kokinakis had slept with his girlfriend. Titillating non tennis related gossip. Everyone is trying to get more eyeballs on their news sites.

[prasen9]

True. As long as we accept that we are sacrificing tennis to make money (attention = money) that is fine with me. My principle is that I would want those to be de-bundled. If you do tennis only, then you get a certain amount of money. And if you do tennis+talking then you get a higher pay. Bundling things together to force "sales" is sort of what monopolies do. I would like government regulations to break this up. Of course, I know it will not happen.

[jai_in_canada]

As long as we accept that we are sacrificing tennis to make money (attention = money) that is fine with me.

We have no choice but to accept that tennis has become a big money making business. But I don't think tennis quality has been sacrificed in the process. On the contrary tennis has had its golden period for the past 15 years. So I am not too fussed at the prospect of tennis losing Osaka. Yes, it will be a loss but there are still a lot of great upcoming WTA stars like Andreescu (if she can only stay fit for more than 2 tournaments at a time), Swiatek, Rybakina and Badosa-Gibert. Not to mention Barty and Halep. This new brand of WTA tennis is so much better to watch with more more variety, creativity, power and athleticism and, best of all, with a lot less screeching, squealing, screaming and squawking.

[prasen9]

Nobody is irreplaceable on this earth. Yes, if there is a void someone will come up and take up the space.

[Rajiv]

Now Osaka has hinted she will be there playing at Tokyo, could it be a because all her major sponsors are Japanese.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.co ... index.html

[prasen9]

Good. She should play wherever she wants to play where she is comfortable. She has a right to make money. Could it be because they agreed not to bundle tennis with speaking? Did they agree to let her just play tennis and not bother with the BS of mandatory interviews? We will see. If she is speaking and taking similar questions as one would in a Grand Slam, only then can we accuse her of hypocrisy. Let us find out what the Olympics is doing to get players that the Grand Slams do not want to do.

[Atithee]

What do you all say about this person’s anxiety disorder? Should rules be bent for him?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/man-sues-7-a ... 13569.html

[jai_in_canada]

Interesting parallel. Or is it? In this guy's case, it could be argued that him not wearing a mask poses a risk to the health of others in a pandemic. Osaka not wanting/being able to do a press conference is not a threat to anyone's health or safety. In Osaka's case, I say existing rules must not be bent/broken just for her. It might make sense to review the rules given her case and possibly modify them. In this guy's case, it's a whole other set of arguments pertaining to liability, rights, privileges, privacy, responsibilities, risks etc.

[prasen9]

Having supported Osaka, there should be no special rules for her. Everyone who needs/wants an exception should be able to get that, say with proper medical documentation. Or voluntarily, at a lower pay grade.

I understand that in reality what I want will not happen easily. But, I am arguing about what I want. Not what I think will most possibly happen.