Tennis News: November 7, 2022

Speculation about the future professional career of Venus Williams and general disarray in the WTA. A shocking video of player abuse has emerged…

Venus Williams’ reflective post raises speculation about tennis future

An Instagram post by Venus Williams reflecting on the 28th anniversary of her professional tennis debut raised speculation that her legendary career could be nearing an end. Full Story: ESPN Instagram Post: Venus Williams

Tennis: Stakeholders think their sport could be next

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova is quite clear about where she stands on the possibility of Saudi Arabian investment disrupting professional tennis in the same way that LIV Golf has ruptured that sport. “I sure hope not,” she said. “I’m totally against what they’re doing with sportwashing that tries to normalize their government and state, and they couldn’t pay me enough to do it. I hope the tennis players have more of a moral compass than the golfers do.” Full Story: Sports Business Journal

The Disarray of the WTA

Money problems, shifting venues and a costly dispute with China have left the tour looking for answers — and a financial lifeline. Full Story: The New York Times

WTA tour starts program to attract female coaches

The WTA Tour’s Coach Inclusion Program, which was unveiled Thursday, includes three phases: a week of offseason training with players in December; a 10-week online certification course; shadowing a coach and player during a tournament. WTA CEO Steve Simon called this a step toward “diversifying and broadening” the coaching pool for women’s tennis. Full Story: The San Diego Union-Tribune

Tennis stars slam video of coach striking, kicking teen player

The video in question showed a tennis coach kicking and slapping a female player. The coach then grabs her by the jacket and swings her down to the clay. The man kicked the girl three times while she was on the ground. The abuse continued as the video played. According to news.au.com, the video is of a 14-year-old girl and the coach in question appeared to be her father. Full Story: Fox News

Tennis star was ‘kicked unconscious’ days before US Open and worse abuse followed

Former tennis star Jelena Dokic has explained how she was abused as a youngster after a video emerged of a teenage being beaten by her father on the court. Full Story: The Express (UK)

Corentin Moutet has been dropped by the French Tennis Federation 

Corentin Moutet has been dropped by the French Tennis Federation over his behavior. The world No 64 is set to lose all of his funding from the governing body and will be banned from using their coaches after being kicked out following a series of incidents this year, including an on-court fight at the Orleans Challenger. Full Story: The Express (UK)

ATP, International Tennis Federation partnering on Davis Cup

The Davis Cup finals and qualifying matches will become an official part of the ATP Tour calendar in 2023 as part of a partnership between the men’s circuit and the International Tennis Federation announced Monday. The two governing bodies and promoter Kosmos Tennis will work together to try to raise the profile of the men’s team event that dates to 1900. Full Story: ESPN

Westminster dog show heads to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center

The Westminster Kennel Club dog show is moving next year to a new venue: the home of the U.S. Open tennis tournament. The kennel club announced Thursday that canine champs will take over the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on May 6, 8 and 9. Westminster awarded its coveted best in show prize at Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden for decades before the coronavirus pandemic prompted the dog show to move outdoors. Full Story: News 12 Long Island

The battle over pickleball courts or tennis courts in San Francisco

Hundreds packed into a community meeting to give input to Rec and Park about 4 options for what type of courts will go into Stern Grove.  Only one option included tennis. “We would rather find another solution than take tennis courts away from tennis,” said Lois Anne Indorf with Tennis Coalition of San Francisco. Full Story: KTVU San Francisco

This Week in Professional Tennis

Date	Tournament	Tour/Level	Location
11/7	WTA Finals	WTA Finals	Ft. Worth, Texas
11/8-13	Billie Jean King Cup Finals	ITF	Glasgow, UK
11/7-13	LP Open by IND	WTA 125	Colina, Chile
11/8-12	Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals	ATP Finals	Milan, Italy

Some Personal Updates

This fall has been unusually busy for me. A couple of weekends ago my 55+ 9.0 team came in third at Nationals, in the interim I presented at the 2022 Aviation ISAC Summit and at the NDIA Annual Systems & Mission Engineering Conference. I am looking forward to returning to a more normal life rhythm toward the end of this week.