The Dirty Game of ATP and Chris Kermode

Chris Kermode was not re-elected as the ATP boss earlier this year. 
As a possible consequence, WTF is moving out of London to Italy next year.

Both news would have gone as they all go - fresh today, stale tomorrow - have not quite few players stood up for him and voiced their opinions I'd say uncalled for and out of the blue.

First it was Federer then Nadal around IW time, then joined the self-important A.Zverev, and now disappointingly - Stan Wawrinka.

Like dogs paid to bark they all spat out their prewritten lines which are now culminating with Justin Glimestob case:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/sports/justin-gimelstob-atp.html

Suddenly, Wawrinka can't help scratching the itch and in his unsubtle ways lets the world know how he feels about a man who was involved in a fight and consequently cleared of it by the US court.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/morals-are-declining-in-tennis-stan-wawrinkas-letter-to-the-times-f9qsnxjb8

It's not the doping, betting corruption, draw rigging, umpire gagging and the rest we have been witnessing for decades, but the fact that Glimestob was on players council, going to replace Kermode that outraged moral giant Wawrinka to open his mouth.

Kermode certainly played his role well, he made WTF in London a great commercial success and just like Tony Blair who was in his position at the right place and time - milked the era of Djokovic ,Federer and Nadal to raise ATP profile.

I am sure I could have done the same job if not better!

Unlke Kermode, who kept profits to "himself" (sponsors atp and itf) and gave crumbs to players, especially lower ranked ones, Glimestob was genuinely fighting for the ones outside top 50, thus truly having interest of tennis future at heart.

Anyway....I thought I'd write about this as I am concerned there are pressures put on Novak Djokovic in attempt to crack his focus before RG.

It ain't gonna work, though. 

Much better to side with Novak’s mate, the borderline psychopathic violent knobster, Gimelstob.

bogbrush wrote:Much better to side with Novak’s mate, the borderline psychopathic violent knobster, Gimelstob.

you probably believe Assange is a pedofile, too....

I have not followed up the atp inside stories for a while...since devilliers I believe. 

Anyway....Do we know why Kermode is not reelected?

noleisthebest wrote:

bogbrush wrote:Much better to side with Novak’s mate, the borderline psychopathic violent knobster, Gimelstob.

you probably believe Assange is a pedofile, too....

He’s never been accused of that, unlike Gimelstob who has been found guilty of being a violent abusive person. And accused by his ex-wife of violence. And Novak’s mate.

“And subsequently cleared of it by the US court”

Erm, no. He admitted the charge and was sentenced accordingly.

I see Djokovic is trying to lay the ground for him to return after a tactical time out for the convicted violent thug. This is exactly what passes for an “honorable” resignation these days - an empty gesture to let the attention wander followed by a stitched-up return facilitated by cronies.

Who does Djokovic think he is, a professional politician?

I have not been following this politics beyond noting that Gimelstob had clearly over-stepped the mark in his extra-curricular activities.

I had thought that when Federer was head honcho he was supposed to be looking out for the lower-ranked players, which caused a minor ruction between him and Nadal.  Generally I get that the players who are the spectacle should get the healthiest slice out of the sport - but there is a balance to be struck with keeping the tournaments from which they derive their income viable.

bogbrush wrote:I see Djokovic is trying to lay the ground for him to return after a tactical time out for the convicted violent thug. This is exactly what passes for an “honorable” resignation these days - an empty gesture to let the attention wander followed by a stitched-up return facilitated by cronies.

Who does Djokovic think he is, a professional politician?

See....you just swallow what media serve out out you.
This is bigger than your Djokovic pet-hate.

It's about the future of tennis. Not that it's the end of the world if it gets ruined like most other sports, but it would be nice to have it grow healthily as long as possible.
Kermode was stifling lower ranked players by giving them crumbs from the cake. Players are selling themselves to betting mafia. Is that what you want?

We need a healthy, broad players' base big three have generated.

If you miss the momentum - it's gone...and who knows if and when it may ever come back.

You do know that is a fact that he admitted the offences in Court? You are actually aware of that aren't you? This actually happened, it's not a media invention, he admitted.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/22/sports/justin-gimelstob-plea.html?module=inline

Are you suggesting the game needs a violent thug in this position? Do you think nobody else in the World can run this except Kermode or the Thug?

Djoko been fucked, he supported the wrong horse against everyone else, now he looks like a moron in front of Players Council with 0 support form any of the top players.

No one has done a better job than Kermode for tennis last few years, and everyone agreed to it, except Djoko and his sneaky shit to have him removed together with support from third country players who I guess he bribed for the votes.

Now his tennis is fucked too, Vajda is gone, his brother is his coach and Pepe spreading love.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2019/mar/09/tennis-loser-feud-novak-djokovic-chris-kermode

Yeah sugarcoating all this Djoko crap for more money for lower ranked players while he himself been always a tax exile, is total bullshit hahaha

And some advice how to fix it maybe and fuckups of what Gimelstob used to do:

https://www.si.com/tennis/2019/05/06/atp-board-justin-gimelstob-mens-tennis-conflict-interest

There is so much obloquy being exchanged on here, but nobody has gotten into the issues.  What was in it for Djoko to remove Kermode if he did not genuinely think that too much money was going the way of tournaments?  Perhaps he has been genuine but wrong, or even right, and had the bad luck for his supporter Gimelstob to be revealed as having feet of clay?  The balance between Tournaments and Players for receiving money generated by the sport needs to be a fair one - but it is a balance.  Setting up a Tournament is a risky and expensive business and has to be worth the promoters' while.  Look at Krajicek's well-publicized annual trawl for competitors who'll put bums on seats.  One of the larger items of expenditure for TD's is the fees top players take to turn up to 500's and 250's.  We know that Fed asks for big fees, I suspect that the others do as well.

Anyway, on the tennis front Djoko is once again by Vajda, who was only absent for 2017 during Djoko's Pepe interlude

But Gimelstop was sucking millions from ATP himself:

ATP paid Gimelstob’s production company, Without Limit Productions, $3.56 million between 2012 and 2017, with the company producing the show ATP Uncovered. Per Kaplan, the ATP also paid Gimelstob $1.4 million during that time.    


Thats $5m for him while being on ATP!! To who did he sell the idea that he wants more money for Players when money was growing at average 10% more annually for lower ranked players anyway.

Vajda is not in Madrid, Djoko said today his bro is his coach hahahaha

Barry, not sure why you think condemning a violent thug is a bad thing.

I’m not saying Djokovic is one, maybe he’s just a bit dopey or easily taken in but he shouldn’t conflate a guy’s policies with his character.

If I've not made it clear, I think Gimelstob has disqualified himself from being involved by his conduct.  He should be yesterday's man as far as the ATP is concerned, and Djokovic is at best unwise to appear to be wavering on that point, seemingly because Gimelstob saw eye to eye with him on matters of policy.

You say we should not conflate Gimelstob's policies with his character.  I agree, that is my point, and it is what the likes Wawrinka seem to be doing, seeking to taint the policies by criticising Gimelstob's behaviour.

My point was that both sides are contributing towards the noise by arguing over Gimelstob's conduct.  That's dumb because it's the easy bit - it was unacceptable.  As I say, this exchange of obloquy is drowning out the underlying issues, which interest me more.  Do you have any view on them?

Well the debate really began because nitb didn’t believe they’d ever happened. Not sure she even does now so it wasn’t as easy as you’d expect.

Going back to the OP nitb didn’t actually raise anything other than how awful it was the the other players wouldn’t tolerate Djokovic’s mate and it was all an evil plan to destabilize Djokovic. Not a tennis issue in sight.

I can see Nole's on C1 on Monday (for the second time).
LTA still can't get over the fact Kermode got the boot from the players' council.

One of the many reasons I want to see Nole lift the trophy on Sunday.

COME OOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!