Bianca Andreescu gives Nike a dressing down at US Open before issuing apology – more »
If you’ve ever played tennis or taken part in any sport or activity with fellow humans, you’ll know the importance of making a good impression.
The same is true of those of us who write about the sport of women’s tennis. We are not here to write about the wins and losses, but the triumphs and failures. We are not here to highlight the great players nor the great matches. Not at all.
We want to write about the issues, both the positive and negative, that affect the sport.
I’d like to take this opportunity to address the problems we have seen for the last decade at the highest level of the game. I think we have come to understand them better, but not fully, yet. At least, that is what I hope we do.
This is not the first time that the sport has been made a scapegoat for female sports and this time it’s women’s tennis rather than women’s boxing.
Let’s face it, tennis has a bad reputation. It is, without a doubt, the sport with the most bad press.
Even at the top rank of women’s tennis, the image of the sport has been tarnished by the unfortunate and misguided decision that has resulted in three of the biggest stars of the sport, Martina Navratilova, Lindsay Davenport and Chris Evert, being subject to a sex and gender discrimination lawsuit filed by the International Tennis Association (ITA).
This decision seems to defy logic and has caused the game to come under attack from a number of angles.
I will address this issue a bit later in the article, but let us get back to the positive.
In its own rights – the ITA (with its male counterparts) should be in the business of producing and promoting tennis, not taking them down.
It is a business and not a sport. There has to be mutual respect and cooperation if a sport is to thrive.
At the top level of the sport, that is simply not there.
That’s why the ITA has brought its lawsuit. It believes it’s right to do so.
