The opening evening session of the US Open 2015 was a public relations disaster for the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). Billed as the dramatic opening match in Serena William’s quest for the calendar year Grand Slam, the match turned out to be a stroll in the park for the world #1.
It became evident as soon as the match began that her opponent, World #86, Russian Vitalia Diatchenko was not up to the task at hand. The Russian’s service motion appeared very awkward but what was evident was that she was not using her legs at all. Seemingly frozen in her spot, ground strokes off of William’s racquet just flew by the Russian. Television commentators attributed her lack of movement to nerves, noting Diatchenko is not used to playing in such big stadiums, in front of such large crowds, against the top player.
With the first set taking all of about twenty minutes it became obvious that the Russian was suffering from an injury. The WTA trainer came on court to tend to her leg. The TV commentators noted that they had not been informed about any pre-existing injury, but attributed that to the fact that Diatchenko was traveling without an entourage so there was no one to inform them.
On a good day, Diatchenko stands little chance of threatening Williams. So the question begs to be asked, why did she play if she was hurt? And to me the answer is obvious. Money. First round losers in this year’s Open earn $39,500 USD. On the year to date Diatchenko has won approximately $160,000 USD. So, by playing the match, she earned 25% of what she had earned so far this year. In contrast, Maria Sharapova realized on the weekend that she was not in top physical form and she was still suffering from a lingering leg injury. Rather than give a subpar performance she withdrew from the tournament. But, also in contrast to Diatchenko, Sharapova is no longer playing tennis to earn a living. Rated by Forbes magazine as the top earning female athlete, Sharapova can afford not to play.
Unfortunately, it is the tennis fans that pay the price for this incident. Fans who held tickets for last night’s matches saw Williams win 32 easy points while her opponent only won five. The score of 6-0 2-0 retired doesn’t even reflect how little effort was required from Williams and accordingly how little entertainment was provided.
The disparity of winnings between the early rounds of a tournament and the winner’s purse has been an issue in tennis for years. With no guaranteed contracts players that do not consistently qualify for main draws and play Challengers and Futures tournaments are always struggling to make enough money to stay on tour. Lobbying by the player’s association has resulted in an increase of prize money for the early rounds, and now there is incentive for players just to show up even if they know they are physically unable to be competitive in the match. At least in this case Diatchenko tried to make a show of it and didn’t retire after just a few points, which would have earned her the same paycheck.
How to correct the problems that are present in the professional game is something both the ATP and WTA need to address.
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