Playing Fair With Player Withdrawal Penalties
Posted by Aaress Lawless on Feb 21, 2007 | Print
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The recent comments by Amelie Mauresmo on the need for a fair and balanced system to deal with player withdrawals prompted me to take a closer look at the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour’s current rules on fines.
As it stands right now, players inside of the top one hundred who withdraw from an event BEFORE the qualifying sign-in deadline are subject to the following fines based on their ranking.
If a player withdraws AFTER the qualifying sign-in deadline, she becomes liable for these fees:
Now, here is where the fine print starts getting interesting. As long as a player can get a medical release/proof from a Tour accredited doctor, she is not liable for her first two withdrawal fees - as long as they are before the qualifying deadline.
The fines are based on a player’s ranking, but a maximum fine of $40,000 is hardly enough to keep a player ranked as high as Maria Sharapova or Justine Henin from pulling out of a tournament.
These fines have basically been in effect for years - they were doubled for the 2007 season - but it is just February and there have been several offenses already this year.
The dreaded word “sanctions” has been tossed around in the past, but now the rhetoric is sure to heat up as the ATP Tour chairman Etienne de Villiers has announced that the men’s circuit will implement fines, and if necessary, suspensions to cut down on the amount of withdrawals by the 2009 season.
The WTA Tour has a habit of copying the ATP’s plans and it may just be a matter of time before Larry Scott decides to make things a bit harder for players that drop out.
Amelie Mauresmo raised the issue of a need for fairness in her press conference earlier this week, but if the WTA Tour continues with its policy of fines based on rankings, the only people that need to worry are the repeat offenders.
The Tour needs to continue penalizing the offending players where it hurts the most - their pocketbooks - and at least make sure that they have tried every avenue before threatening to put the biggest stars, who coincidentally sell tickets, on suspensions.
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