The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP, or the men’s professional tennis tour) is a problematic organization. To truly represent the sport so many love, the organization must address bad actors even if it comes at the cost of profit.
The lack of policies surrounding sensitive issues and the inability to respond to poor behaviors of its players is only part of the larger problem surrounding the ATP. A lack of a policy condemning domestic abuse has allowed Nikoloz Basilashvili to continue competing professionally, without penalty, after Basilashvili was arrested for physically assaulting his ex-wife, Neka Dorokashvili. Similarly, Alexander Zverev has continued playing despite accusations of domestic violence by an ex-girlfriend, Olya Sharypova, whom he drove to the point of suicidal thoughts, according to an interview by Ben Rothenberg of
Racquet Magazine
. Not only does the ATP refuse to suspend or fine these players, but the well-followed ATP Tours and Tennis TV Twitter accounts (@ATPTour and @TennisTV) still promote Basilashvili and Zverev when they win a match and feature them in pre-match promos. The response to these players’ transgressions could not be worse. Unsurprisingly, ATP fails spectacularly because it puts aside morality in favor of the monetary gains from including Zverev and Basilashvili in the tour.
On Wednesday, March 24, Vasek Pospisil called ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi a “f***ing a**hole” in an on-court meltdown during a match in Miami. Vasek Pospisil attributed his on-court outburst to Andrea Gaudenzi, the chairman of the ATP, with whom he had a strenuous and belittling meeting the day before. Undoubtedly, Gaudenzi needs to answer for the accusations of her unprofessional language during said meeting. Despite the problems behind the scene, Pospisili’s profanity-filled rant at umpire Arnaud Gabas was unwarranted. Gabas’s job is to call the score between points and announce line call challenges by the players, not to be the target of verbal abuse or a therapist for the players. Yet the ATP still has not condemned Posipisil’s behavior and stood against abuse of its umpires. Umpires are frequently the target of verbal outbursts, sometimes sparked by something as insignificant as a single incorrect line call — or a correct call presumed to be incorrect by a player. In 2017, Gabas was struck in the eye by an angrily hit ball from the racket of Denis Shapovalov, forcing Gabas to undergo surgery shortly after. Players are rarely punished with anything more than small fines.
Benoit Paire, the notoriously volatile Frenchman, has been deliberately losing or not giving full effort matches left and right in 2021. Despite the negative impact of this on himself, the tournament and the sport as a whole, the ATP has only recently given him a fine of 5,500 Euros. Paire, who has career prize money totaling over 8.5 million USD, does not seem to be too bothered. The ATP circuit “has become sad, boring and ridiculous,” Paire
wrote
on Instagram on March 11. Last week, the
Washington Post
published an article titled “French tennis player [Paire] suggests he prefers losing to winning amid the pandemic.” Paire’s apathetic approach to the recent tournaments could be seen as a result of the issues that plague the ATP.
The commonality between all of these issues is the ATP’s refusal to issue a decisive response to any poor behavior. Even before these crises arose, tennis was hopelessly divided: the biggest tournaments — the Majors — are separate organizations from the ATP itself, resulting in miscommunications and conflicts of interest.
The ATP has done such a horrible job at representing players that Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil are spearheading a gambit to create a new organization: the Professional Tennis Players Association, or PTPA. Gaudenzi’s aforementioned tirade at Pospisil is related to the PTPA’s next move, as the PTPA has been mostly dormant so far. The PTPA also lacks a single female player, though some members have mentioned a desire to include the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association).
The growing number of players turning to the PTPA proves that the ATP’s representation of players needs a drastic improvement. The players who currently benefit most are the two who have been accused or convicted of abuse and are permitted to play without penalty by the ATP.
The ATP is an organization for one of the most popular and important sports in the world. The ability of tennis players to hit shot after shot with pace and accuracy would lead one to think that the ATP would have a semblance of that precision in their behind-the-scenes management, but, alas, fans and tennis players alike are left disappointed.
