WTA Asks Federal Court To Remove Lawsuits Brought By Ion Tiriac

The WTA Tour on Friday asked a federal court to remove three overseas lawsuits brought against the circuit by Madrid Open organizer Ion Tiriac and force arbitration in N.Y. Tiriac is suing in Romania, Cyprus and Spain over his efforts not to pay equal prize money to women at his Madrid tournament, and over what he said were defamatory comments made by the WTA in '17 when he invited Ilie Nastase to the on-court trophy celebration. The WTA had banned Nastase after he made comments deemed racist and sexist at a Fed Cup match earlier that year. The WTA fined Tiriac for the Nastase incident, according to the court filings. In an email to the Madrid tournament in '17, WTA CEO Steve Simon wrote a fine would be between $50,000 and $100,000. The WTA is asking the federal court in N.Y., where the circuit is organized as a not-for-profit, to compel arbitration as required under the Tour rule book, or move the lawsuits into the U.S. The WTA is represented by Proskauer Rose.