Women's tennis "is facing a crisis with established tournaments threatening to withdraw their financial backing unless players can be persuaded to show greater commitment and not devalue events by mass no-shows," according to Barry Flatman of the SUNDAY TIMES. After box-office names like world No.1 Serena Williams, new Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber and WTA Finals winner Agnieszka Radwanska "withdrew from the Dubai Duty Free Championships before not one of the remaining eight seeds managed to win a match, the epidemic spread to this week’s Qatar Total Open." Kerber "lost early along with fellow top-ten players Petra Kvitova, Garbine Muguruza and Belinda Bencic."
Now Salah Tahlak, the Dubai tournament director and a prominent member of the WTA’s Tournament Council, "has fiercely criticised the women’s star players for a 'lack of commitment' and has requested stringent steps to be taken to ensure so many high profile players no longer don’t bother even turning up at tournaments in future." WTA President Micky Lawler "was whisked to the Gulf for three days of meetings" with Tahlak and leading execs of the Dubai event who have long been one of the most active of women’s tennis. Tahlak: "The players sometimes don’t see or think how much the events and cities are investing behind this." Tahlak was further offended by the fact former world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki "sent her apologies" and then was photographed at the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition launch party in N.Y.
Serena Williams "too maintained she was unfit to contest both events and then was caught by the paparazzi enjoying a carefree holiday in the Caribbean." Tahlak said, "We invested a lot of money. We built the stadium, we built a five-star onsite hotel, all this counts over the years. And then imagine to have all the pictures of Serena, Caroline and the others along Sheikh Zayed Road, and they are not here. We are losing a lot of money." Financial compensation "will certainly be on the agenda in Miami." Tahlak: "All the top seeds not coming, not attending impacted our ticket sales. They were very bad. The numbers dropped drastically" (SUNDAY TIMES, 2/27).
