Talk About Tennis 2.0

^^ The new normal for this ITF and Challenger tournaments taking place the second week of these long tournaments. Hopefully sometime soon, they'll realize they need to allow for a couple of 250s in the second week of these 2-week tournaments. I can't tell if they didn't see this coming or they didn't care.

I would go further. I would also allow these 250's you propose, with automatic entry for players that lost in the MS1000 the week before (no need to play the qualies). Otherwise, too long a break for a 1R loser in the MS1000.

Doubles Gate seems less petty than Cake Gate

After the final, Gauff sought out the tournament officials and said she received an apology. “I was told it was a situation that didn’t involve me that happened,” said Gauff. “I’m not going to go into that situation. People probably know what it was. But, yeah, that’s what I was told. I said that situation for me was not deep enough to not have a trophy ceremony. I think that we worked hard to get to that final.

“But I think it was just more about the principle behind it, that in future cases, maybe me or somebody else, criticises the organisation or tournament, maybe deeper than what was said, I don’t know, maybe racism, homophobia, something like that. You can’t just cut, no speech, no nothing. You have to take those criticisms.”

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/ ... -in-madrid

What exactly was the reasoning behind not having anyone speak at the final trophy "ceremony".

Owendonovan wrote: ↑Tue May 09, 2023 11:12 pm What exactly was the reasoning behind not having anyone speak at the final trophy "ceremony".

This only happened to the winners of the Women's Doubles. Some think Feli was pissed about the fuss made about cakegate by Vika. I think I posted her comments here and the comments by a tennis reporter who said that she was wrong about the cake and should've spoken offline to Feli or whoever was responsible.

Madrid has always had problems.

And of course there are those saying that Pegula should just buy the tournament...

There are some things that happen in this world that make me wonder how much money was wasted on an expensive PR firm handling situations as poorly as this.

Owendonovan wrote: ↑Wed May 10, 2023 12:42 am There are some things that happen in this world that make me wonder how much money was wasted on an expensive PR firm handling situations as poorly as this.

My guess is someone (F. Lo likely) had too much hubris to ask their PR firm what to do.

I know people are putting a lot of this on Feliciano, but I'm going to have to say BS to all of that. You want to control the PR better? IMG owns this damn tournament now and all they do is PR and almost always exceptionally well. This is on them for not handling everything better, they didn't have to step one foot outside of the agency to get that done.

I agree. IMG is not unlike Kinsey, what they say, goes. Maybe they don't want Lopez there anymore so make him the fall guy? Conspiratorial? Maybe, but Lopez doesn't have what IMG has.

#MMOPEN
@MutuaMadridOpen
"Pedimos sinceras disculpas a todas las jugadoras, jugadores y aficionados que esperaban más del Mutua Madrid Open. No dar a nuestras finalistas de dobles femenino la oportunidad de dirigirse a los aficionados al final del partido fue inaceptable y nos hemos disculpado… (1/3)
Translated from Spanish by Google
"We sincerely apologize to all the players and fans who expected more from the Mutua Madrid Open. Not giving our women's doubles finalists the opportunity to address the fans at the end of the match was unacceptable and we have apologized… (1/3 )

…directamente con Victoria, Beatriz, Coco y Jessica. Estamos trabajando internamente, y con la WTA, para revisar nuestros protocolos y nos comprometemos a mejorar nuestros procesos de cara al futuro. (2/3)
Translated from Spanish by
…directly with Victoria, Beatriz, Coco and Jessica. We are working internally, and with the WTA, to review our protocols and are committed to improving our processes going forward. (23)

Cometimos un error, y esto no volverá a ocurrir nunca".

Gerard Tsobanian, CEO del Mutua Madrid Open

(3/3)
Translated from Spanish by
We made a mistake, and this will never happen again."

Gerard Tsobanian, CEO of the Mutua Madrid Open

(3/3)

This again

Let's have it by fiat. If the tournament is a joint event, it must have the same prize money.
But the organizers decide if it will be joint. Let the economics talk.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Fri May 12, 2023 9:27 pm Let's have it by fiat. If the tournament is a joint event, it must have the same prize money.
But the organizers decide if it will be joint. Let the economics talk.

If the ATP were a true partner, they would've insisted on equal pay before approving the move to the 12-day schedule. They didn't have to give them that at all, leave them out until they get with the times.