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Daily Dispatch: Stakhovsky Again Opens Mouth, Inserts Foot

22 August, 2012

Several weeks ago, Sergiy Stakhovsky, a member of the ATP players’ council (via Twitter) expressed agreement with fellow ATP player Gilles Simon’s comments that women should not be paid equally at joint tennis tournaments, including Grand Slams.

Lindsay Gibbs spoke to Stakhovsky for 10sworld.com yesterday, and Stakhovsky added more fuel to the fire when Gibbs asked him to clarify some of his comments about equal pay:

“‘We sit down, do you know how many talks we have in the locker rooms about the Grand Slams, about pay increases? …  It comes to the point where the men are willing to commit themselves and to communicate and to do some work towards the Grand Slams, towards getting more, and the women are just riding on our backs,’ [Stakhovsky] said.”

“‘They didn’t even say not one “thank you.” I mean, they got an increase in Paris, they got an increase at the U.S. Open, they got an increase at Wimbledon. Did any of the WTA players ever come to the ATP offices and say, “We’re so grateful that the guys put this all together so we could get more money?” There was no thank-you. Now I don’t want it … They don’t appreciate what we did and we don’t appreciate them riding on our backs … If they would have their council, if they would do work with the Grand Slams and talk to them, it would be a different story. But we do the work for them.’”

So Stakhovsky is offended that the WTA players haven’t thanked the men for whatever it is he thinks they did for the women. Get on that, Serena.

Elsewhere in the interview, he complained about having to wake up at 7:00am to get a practice court during joint ATP-WTA events. This sounds like a very tough life, Sergiy. Most of the world has no idea what it feels like to wake up at 7:00am to do their job. Oh wait.

Stakhovsky did say one accurate thing in that interview: “The tour of women is none of my business, I have no idea how it runs.”

On the bright side, Stakhovsky’s beliefs perfectly coincide with those of the WTA’s new spokesperson Donald Trump.

According to Vesti Online, World No. 2 Novak Djokovic was so distraught over not medaling at the Olympic Games that Vlade Divac, head of the Serbian Olympic Committee, found him cutting up his racquets with a saw after the Games.

It is a bizarrely dramatic story, sure, but he gets points for originality. Most players just demolish their offending racquet on the nearest tennis court surface. Djokovic used a saw!

In all seriousness, Djokovic has shown that pride in playing for his country matters to him. He attributes his record-breaking accomplishments in 2011 to inspiration from leading the Serbian Davis Cup team to victory in late 2010.

This racquet incident, along with Djokovic’s subsequent apology to Divac, just shows the opposite side of the equation; the bitter disappointment in feeling like he let his country down. His passion cuts both ways.

That said, Djokovic had an excellent few weeks after the Olympics, winning in Toronto and making the final in Cincinnati. Clearly Djokovic would like to put his disappointment behind him as he prepares for the US Open.

Good news for the tennis community: the NCAA rescinded their controversial proposed college tennis rule changes.

Tweet of the day, from during an Andy Roddick match:

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