WTA boss Steve Simon - "We will not give up our principles"
The WTA is looking for a multi-year solution after the rather unfortunate WTA finals in Fort Worth, Texas. China still seems unrealistic as a partner.
by Stefan Bergmann
last edit: Nov 09, 2022, 08:05 am
It was quite sad pictures that were sent to the living room at home via live stream: A 14,000-seat stadium in Fort Worth, Texas, was the venue for this year's WTA finals, the largest tournament on the women's tour apart from the four Grand Slam tournaments in Australia, France, UK and USA. Only the sprawling terrain was not in danger of developing lack of space. On the contrary: in the strongest moments, around 6,000 tennis fans had gathered on the facility, in the weakest one felt reminded of the bad lockdown times.
And the Covid-19 virus was also the beginning of all evil, as the WTA's big plan to hold the finals in Shenzhen, China, for ten years had to be shelved due to the tough "zero-Covid" policy of the People's Republic . In addition, the abuse case involving tennis star Peng Shuai, which reached up to the highest political levels, was reason for the players' association to suspend all events in the third largest country in the world indefinitely.
Multi-year solution sought
The WTA is currently having to save itself from one interim solution (2021 Guadalajara, Mexico) to the next (Fort Worth, Texas, USA), which is not only a moderate catastrophe for the players and those responsible, but also for the important sponsors and media partners . In an interview with "The New York Times", WTA boss Steve Simon underlined how important an iron will is: "We have remained steadfast and we stand by our position, we will not give up our principles."
"We're still in the same position," Simon continued. "Of course, if China can come up with something new, we're open to looking at it. But so far we haven't noticed anything. But I hope we can find a solution. What's the truth? Then we can move on." In any case, the one-year solutions for the WTA finals are no longer an option: "It's not sustainable. If it doesn't look like we can return to China, I think we have to find another multi-year solution because we need it for our business to need."
Where on the world map this solution could be found, the American was initially still guilty.