Naomi Osaka, WTA, ATP discussed on The Passing Shot Tennis Podcast
Automatic TRANSCRIPT
And yeah, the ranking, the prize money might be high enough for me to not really care about the ranking points, but obviously ranking points are a big motivation to a lot of players and for Naomi Osaka. At this moment, she's not particularly sure if she's going to play. Yeah, she said it's going to feel like an exhibition. Because although she knows it's more than an exhibition, it's prestigious torments a Grand Slam. There is obviously large amount of surprise money, the prestige, but she kind of fills it in her in her head, I suppose, she said it will feel a bit exhibitionary and therefore she doesn't feel like she can give a 100%. So she's leaning towards not playing it and perhaps other players will also feel the same way. I mean, it personally if I was a player, I would still go because you've got the potential to earn a lot of prize money, which obviously, depending on where you are in the world, you know, that could obviously a significant amount for many, many players. And you've obviously got the prestige, but yeah, someone like folks, who is going to drop out of the top hundred, that's totally not fair, and that's going to put him at risk of not getting into certain tournaments. He might not then get into the U.S. open. That can really affect the rest of someone's season and their career. And he has nothing to do with either of these decisions that have been made, like the first one by Wimbledon to deny Russian and Belarusian players to play. And then this kind of retaliation by the ATP and WTA to kind of punish Wimbledon for making that initial decision. It does feel like players are like they're kind of being caught up as pawns in this game. And I understand why the ATP and WTA have decided to strip the points because they need to make a statement that the fact that it's not right to deny players the opportunity to play based on based on their nationality and the actions of their government, which has nothing to do with themselves as people. But I don't know, is this the, is this the right? I think they wanted to send out a strong message to stop other tournaments making similar decisions to Wimbledon. So I guess they've certainly done that, but I don't know if they fully considered all the ramifications or they were just like, oh, we're going to do it anyway. And players will just have to deal with it. I'm not sure. Yeah, it was interesting also to hear kind of rapper talk about the fact that and other sort of getting to this conclusion was I feel in a weird way both organizations are right and what they're doing is correct. But yeah, it's having a big impact on the players. And as a result, who knows what the drawers are going to look like, it could absolutely affect the integrity of the competition if players like Naomi Osaka are like, well, actually, ranking points are big motivation for me. I'm not going to, I'm not going to play if there aren't any. If there are other players that follow suit, the integrity could be completely weakened, I think, from a tournament and a sort of a competition kind of standpoint. But at the moment, it doesn't feel like there's many winners in this in this scenario. And some of the big losers are players who defending a lot of ranking points and they will be annoyed because they've not had the opportunity or they will not get the opportunity to defend them. And I think that's the thing that annoys people the most like future bitch. It's like I've not able to go on a court and like I normally do with ranking points. I accrue throughout the year. And I can't go on a call and do my best to defend them. It feels like I've been powerless in this situation and yeah, again, players not particularly happy. I think about how little control I think they have on this moment. And it was interesting also to, I think, here, Benoit paire talk about Benoit pelvis, he says a lot of crazy things, but I actually again sort of agree with him when he was talking about this decision is based on Russian and Belarusian players, but it feels like everyone is being everyone is being everyone is being affected and again. For some of these players, it's like, I've got nothing to do with this. I don't want anything to do with this, but there have been dragged into the story because of the decisions by Wimbledon and by the ATP and WTA. Yeah, and I think it just makes a mockery again of the organization within tennis and the structure of everything, how you've got all these sort of competing decision making bodies, and they don't seem to talk to each other much, and they kind of make unilateral decisions like Wimbledon did without really consulting anyone. And then you get this kind of backlash and you get all these problems further down the line and I think this tournament is going to be remembered as the one that a lot of players weren't at. Either because they were banned or because they just boycotted it or they thought, well, you know, maybe I just won't bother playing because what's the point? Do you think the fans will care? Because again, I think Wimbledon's kind of interesting in the sense a lot of people go for it for a day out. A social occasion and there are obviously there are people there. You and me who are there for quality competition. But there are other people there. I just want to go and have pims and have strawberries and cream, et cetera. And again, I'm interested. I feel like those sorts of fans, again, they might see this decision. They might not even be aware of this decision, but if they did, they probably not maybe going to care as much about it as, say, you know, if it happened at another grandson, because this sort of segment exists, I think, at Wimbledon, and they're just here for a great day out. It doesn't feel like it affects their particular kind of they're watching experience as much as maybe if this sort of situation arose at the Australian open or the U.S. open. Yeah, I mean, hey, Joel, you can do both. You can watch quality tennis and enjoy some pym. Just so you know very, very true. I intend to do both. Yeah, like I think it won't affect much on the ground, like Wimbledon is so popular, there's going to be thousands of people still going, I don't think it's going to make a difference in terms. You'll still be in the queue. Yeah, I will still be in the queue touchwood, and I don't think it's going to affect numbers going through the gates. Let's just say that much. But you know, certain people might miss or lament the fact that certain players aren't there. I'm sure there'll be a lot of chat around the grounds when people realize so and so and that's going to mean. And I do think like you said earlier, the irony is that Daniel Medvedev will probably become world number one again. And I'm sure Vladimir Putin will love that. So Wimbledon they're going to be like, oh, we didn't really think about it. I mean, obviously Wimbledon weren't to know that the ATP would then make this decision. But I guess their decision make everything has a consequence and I do feel like they kind of decided this slightly irrationally. I understand everyone's motivations from all sides, but at the end of the day, I think I said this when we discussed it before. I don't think it's right to deny players the opportunity to play just based on where they were born, essentially. And I think it can set a dangerous precedent going forward. So it needs to be set in stone that you can't do this. And I guess that's why ATP and WTA have come out also with a strong response. But Kim, let's look at the upside here because there is an opportunity here for, I don't know, let's say the passing shot come in, let's get our own ranking point event in the two weeks of Wimbledon. I want ATP WTA croydon, I want another event in London..