The ATP and the Sony Ericsson WTA, respectively
the governing bodies of men's and women's tennis, are the invertebrates of
sport. Spineless. In future years the compilers of dictionaries will need to
place an addendum to the word 'mandatory', which will read: compulsory, except
when applied to tennis authorities. The current tournament in Key Biscayne,
Florida is supposed to be one of the women's mandatory tournaments, yet Maria
Sharapova, the world No5, decided she was too tired to play and needed a week
off.
Too tired? The US-based
Russian claims she has had only three days r and r since just before the
Australian Open where she won her third grand slam title, although in total
this year she has played in only three tournaments together with the Fed Cup, a
grand total of 19 matches of which she has won 18, most of them without having
to break sweat.
The majority of Sharapova's time has been taken up with
adding more dollars to her bulging coffers in the form of exhibitions and
sponsorship appearances. But now the poor lamb is exhausted. So what did the
WTA do when she pulled out of what is their biggest event outside of the four
slams? Reprimand her severely and fine her a large chunk for letting down the
fans? No. They metaphorically patted her on the head, invited her to pop along
for a few autograph sessions, and reminded her that she had a bad shoulder last
year, and it would be best if she used that as an excuse rather than anything
else.
The WTA is, of course,
reaping what it has been sowing for years. The Williams sisters, Venus and
Serena, have always ignored whatever strictures the organisation has tried to
impose on them and gone their own sweet way, taking the sport and everybody
else for a ride. Only recently, in one of their rare 'competitive' meetings
outside the majors, Serena trilled: "Oh, I would love to play Venus more often.
It is not that we avoid playing each other. We have different managers and our
tour schedules are pretty different and we don't get to meet each other. That's
all. I loved playing her in Bangalore and all the good times that we had here
together, we shopped, which we have not done for quite some time."
Well, that's all right then. As long as the sisters get time to shop
every now and then, the women's tennis world can rest easy. Before this week
Serena had played in just two tournaments this year, and Venus four. Nice work,
girls. So Sharapova has had a couple of splendid role models in the Williams,
and like them can cock a snook at the WTA, just as Pete Sampras and Andre
Agassi used to at the ATP, and as does Andy Roddick of the current US men. Of
the nine mandatory Masters series events last year, he played five.
It
is, of course, the US dollar that propels tennis, so neither the ATP nor WTA
dare upset ther leading American or US-based players, even though they are a
fast dwindling breed. Imagine the ATP picking on a US player for being involved
in betting, or insinuations of match-fixing. No, pick on a few Italians nobody
has ever heard of, or the hapless Nikolay Davydenko of Russia.