Meanwhile, in TennisWorld - Genie plays another mess of a match and is out before the lines are even dry. She needs to go back to playing challengers and take that dishrag of a kit with her.
And JMDP has a R2 date with Roger. Now that is a match which will put people In the seats.
he was saying props to women for fighting for what they think they deserve, but he said that men deserve more than what they have now because of viewership and fanbase.
If tennis was like basketball, wta would make money more like the wnba and tennis players more like the nba.
Men are underpaid and women are making what they feel they deserve, in terms of viewrship and money brought to the sport.
@Alexandre The crowd was definitely pro-Nadal. Djokovic has never been a crowd favorite except in his native Serbia , Italy, and China. Even his recent dominance in Australia has not lent him any sort of popularity.
Now, onto the sexism of Djokovic’s comments. (Well first of all, his points are NOT valid.) What he said is not as obviously sexist as those of the bigot Moore. Djokovic is approached with a question about women fighting for equal pay, and he responds by saying men should fight for more. Now, it doesn’t take a mathematician to realize that men fighting for more means women getting less. His argument that men should earn more because they draw more viewers (which is an entirely false notion that once again reveals his inability to see women as equals) is incredibly flimsy. As the ATP President stated, this matter of economics should NEVER get in the way of equality. Even if men were bringing in more viewers all the time, they still should not get more money than women. Tennis players are not salespeople – they don’t earn commission and aren’t paid by the number of tickets they sell (disregarding endorsements); doing so would ruin the very ethos of the sport, which is to play the game, and not to sell tickets.
This brings me to my next point, that this press conference has revealed Djokovic’s hypocrisy regarding previous statements earlier about needing to increase pay at the lower level. He also referred to this need to have more equally-distributed prize money in his “apology,” which reads as more of an attempt to spin some story to deflect some of the fire. What he said was plain and clear: that men should earn more than women since they supposedly attract a greater live and television audience – nowhere did he mention the little guys scraping a living at the lower level. But Djokovic also contradicts himself here. These unknown / non-superstars players who play on the Challenger Tour or get swiftly eliminated at the bigger tournaments barely attract any viewers at all. By his logic, shouldn’t they receive a paltry sum for their limited contribution to viewership?
That was a long-winded post. But bottom line: a pure mathematical approach to topics such as this should NEVER get in the way of equality.
“but considering my vast tennis network, the majority of the people I know will openly admit that they dislike Djokovic out of loyalty to Federer or Nadal…”
@Alexandre, just no. He was hated way before he was beating Rafa or Roger on a regular basis for
or winning slams. From way back in 2008:
There is a reason his nick is Fakervic.
emily, I am not sure if a 20-21 year old kid could have handled the brutal Flushing Meadows crowd any better than Djokovic did back in 2008. Like I said, I do not judge players. I will go with what I know, not what others say. Djokovic is playing great tennis. When he loses, he credits the winner. When the chair umpires or line judges miss something, he points it out, even if it is in a tightly contested game, even if it means losing a point he would have otherwise won. I will ignore gossip and banter, and I really don’t pay attention to press releases. But on the point of male vs female prize money, he should have kept quiet. It was not his place to speak.
@Alexandre, my point is that people disliked Djoker before he started dominating Rafa and Roger. Way before. Tennis fans had been seeing for awhile his behavior on court - all the MTO’s and retires when match was getting away from him or he was losing - never when he was in a winning position. The other players were well aware of it too. Nothing to do at all with dominating Rafa and Roger and everyone else now.
I think (present controversy aside) that people should get credit for growing up, evolving, whatever one wants to call it.
Roger Federer’s early behavior was not the model of elegance and decorum that it is now. Not by a long shot.
McEnroe (I know you hate him Emily) - is now an elder statesman who can look back, laugh and admit that although he still believes he was ripped off routinely in pre-Hawkeye days, his behavior was pretty appalling.
Nole has grown up on court and become a mature and unflappable player, even in the face of strong crowd opposition. His parents have learned to act less like pizza-parlor owners and more like upper middle class tennis people, if you think that’s a good thing. Credit where credit is due.
I actually liked Mac when he was a player. But once a player walks directly up to me and says “blank you, blank you? blank you” in a exhibition match no less - I reserved the right to change my opinion. Fish also told two of my friends to “blank off” at a match in Madrid (or maybe it was Barca.) To use the word dislike about him would be kind.
I’ve seen other players treat ball kids like dirt - off my list they go, too.
Roger did have a temper when he was first coming up but he didn’t fake injuries and retire when losing matches.
Kygrios may end up being #1 and winning multiple slams ( he already has talent coming out the wazoo) but it’s very likely that tennis fans won’t be giving him any love either.
At Indian Wells you can see close up who is considerate of the fans (particularly kids) who want a photo or an autograph. Andy Murray is consistently nice, signing and posing for photos. His on court behavior, where I heard a WTF, does not mirror his off court behavior.
Stan Wawrinka, OTOH, walked right past kids who wanted an autograph.
I do not agree emily. The intense dislike you exhibit did not exist until 2011. I have been watching Djokovic since 2007, and I have been a fan since 2010. I do not recall such an intense dislike until 2011/2012. Djokovic’s MTOs were a nuisance to be sure, but they hardly inspired intense dislike, except from opposing player’s fans. Players take TMOs all the time.
And his retirements were not suspicious. Your accusation that he retires on purpose is preposterous and wholly unfounded. Lendl, Agassi, Roddick, Connors, Nadal and Sampras all had as many retirements as Djokovic. Why is he being singled out? You say that he only retired when he was losing, or when the match was getting away from him. That tends to be the case with most retirements. The player is feeling sick or injured and retires as a result. But even then, in most of his retirements, Djokovic was not completely out. Here are his retirements according to my research:
2015, Dubai Open, Vs Feliciano Lopez, Novak Djokovic was down 3-6 when he retired (Djokovic often returns from a set down, his eyes were really bothering him. He was a set down against Fratangelo in the opening round of Indian Wells and did not retire then)
2011, Cincinnati Masters, Vs Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic was down 4-6, 0-3 when he retired (this is one of two occasions where he retired when he was most likely going to lose)
2010, Belgrade Open, Vs Filip Krajinovic, Novak Djokovic was down 4-6 when retired (again, he returns from a set down frequently, he was obviously hurt)
2009, Australian Open, Vs Andy Roddick, Novak Djokovic was down two sets to one when he retired 7-6(3), 4-6, 2-6, 1-2. I seriously doubt that as defending champion, he would have retired in the quarterfinal of a major with so much left to play if he were not hurt)
2008, Monte-Carlo Masters, Vs Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic was down 3-6, 2-3 when he retired
2008, Davis Cup, RUS-SRB, Vs Nikolay Davydenko. Novak Djokovic was up two sets to one, 6-4, 6-3, 4-6 before he retired (here, Djokovic had the upper hand, he must have been hurt)
2007, Wimbledon, Vs Rafael Nadal. Novak Djokovic was tied one set apiece with Nadal being up a break in the third set 6-3, 1-6, 1-4 before he retired. Considering it was a Major semi-final, again, I am fairly certain Djokovic was hurt.
2006, Umag, Vs Stanislas Wawrinka. Novak and Stan were tied at 6-6 in the first set and about to start the first set tie-break before he retired. Hardly suspicious.
2006, French Open, Vs Rafael Nadal. Novak Djokovic was down two sets, 4-6, 4-6 before he retired. While he was certain to lose this match, I don’t see Djokovic losing a major on purpose.
2005, Metz, Vs Yuriy Schukin. Novak and Yuriu were tied at one set apiece 6-4, 4-6 before Djokovic retired. Nothing suspicious.
2005, French Open, Vs Guillermo Coria. Djokovic and Coria were pretty much tied 6-4, 2-6, 2-3 before he retired. Again, nothing suspicious.
All said, I do not think any of his retirements were suspicious. Until he went gluten free in 2010, Djokovic admitted being out of shape and chronically ill. Since then, he has not called nearly as many TMOs and he retired from just two matches.
When one spends lots of time in TennisWorld you see and hear lots of things about players most people never know about.
I was at a team tennis match in Philly several years ago and sat next to a mom whose kid was a ball girl. She told me how all the star players - the ones who play only one or two nights for a team always, after the matches are over, sign everything for the ball kids and give them their shirts, racquets, sweatbands, etc, and then she told me how Agassi refused to sign a thing and just split. She said the kids were heartbroken.
I’ve also heard some pretty nasty things about Billie Jean. My cousin’s husband was a exec for WTT at the very beginning and then went to run (on the business side) the Boston Lobsters for a bit. She is not like she comes across on TV.
Agassi has made some pretty nasty statements alleging that Pete Sampras is stingy. I was at a fundraiser hit around at IW and he made those comments (which failed to be funny) in front of Sampras and a large crowd.
^ There is no love lost between the two of them.
@Alexandre, just please. He was disliked by both fans and players well before he was dominating anyone. Do you think his fellow players didn’t know what’s up with him? They knew perfectly well how he rolled.
I didn’t think I would watch a match with a player more brainless then Genie but Sloane Stephens sure proved me wrong. From 3-1 up in the first set to losing 6-3 6-0 including 16 points in a row! How is that even possible?
Was nice to see that Sunshine won a match.
Roger out of Miami due to illness. 
Replaced by LL. But now JMDP is injured and comms saying it’s his left wrist again. Poor guy.
Jon Wertheim has an excellent column at SI in which he lays out the case that equal pay in tennis is not just good for women, it’s good for the men and the entire sport.
Totally agree with extra love for the players who are good to the ball kids and fans, especially children. This is where I think Rafa really shines and a reason I am a big fan.
Interesting day yesterday. I can not remember Rafa retiring in a match because of heat exhaustion. He really is a shell of himself, last week notwithstanding. Then Smyczek winning a 3rd set tb over Isner. Iirc, he doubled to lose the match.
I would imagine the contrast between Indian Wells and Miami is hard to adapt to.
Stevie Johnson forces a third set against Berdych after being down a match point. Come on Stevie!