The French Open's "rogue" rescheduling clash with the Laver Cup may have been a deliberate attempt to "kill" the rising men's team event, former Australian tennis player Sam Groth says.
The French Open will now be played in September, just one week after the US Open and in conflict with the Laver Cup, the glitzy Europe vs World exhibition that's approaching its fourth edition.
The players were already furious about the move to play two Grand Slams virtually back-to-back, made without consultation. Groth believes that the decision may not only have been thoughtless to players, but politically sinister.
"They were trying to be proactive but they've just gone rogue," Groth said on Sports Sunday.
"No consultation with the players, with the tours, men's or women's, with the other Slams. They've just gone and thrown themselves in, in the middle of September, a week after the US Open but clashing with a handful of ATP events as well as the Laver Cup.
"Which, to be honest, most of the top guys are actually contracted to play. It's going to become probably a legal battle, if the players are back on court by the time that time of the season comes around, because there's going to be a big conflict.
"How does Rafael Nadal go and try to win his 13th French Open title when he's contracted to play the Laver Cup the same week?"
The French Tennis Federation is a supporter of the traditional Davis Cup tournament, run by the International Tennis Federation, rather than new-wave team events. Tennis Australia is one of the Laver Cup's founders, along with Roger Federer's management company IMG.
"The other thing that's been missed a little bit in this is the FFT, they're very much in cahoots with the ITF and they've been a big supporter of the new-look Davis Cup," Groth said, with the Cup now primarily a one-week finals event in November.
"What they've gone and done is they've put themselves in a week that coincides with the Laver Cup, which people see as a bit of a threat - alongside the ATP Cup - to this new-look Davis Cup.
"They've gone and backed themselves in, put themselves in a situation where they're trying to - I feel - kill the Laver Cup before it starts to get as big as a Ryder Cup [in golf] for example.
"They're looking at that sort of model from a tennis point of view and if you go and make players decide between playing this event (Laver Cup) or playing the French Open, it's going to be a heck of a decision for the players to have to make.
"I wouldn't be surprised if we see this one end up in the courts at some point, because a lot of sponsors and a lot of money [is] involved. It (Laver Cup) is meant to be in Boston this year. It's going to be this interesting one, there's a lot to play out still."
Groth said that the fiasco had exposed the fractured nature of elite tennis governance.
"I think the hardest thing is that the players just haven't been consulted at all in this. It shows where tennis is at, because everything runs so separate in tennis," Groth said.
"The four Grand Slams, they all govern themselves. The ATP, they run separately from each other. All of a sudden now, you've got Roland Garros, without consulting any of the other tournaments, just going and throwing themselves in at a point in the calendar that they thought was suitable.
"They've acted very much in their own interest, but without the consideration of anybody; not the players, not the tournaments. To turn around a week after the US Open and think everyone's going to be able to back up and play another best-of-five, up to seven best-of-five-set matches on a different surface...
"The players have been joking around on social media, why don't we just run all four Slams back-to-back-to-back, get them all out of the way? You can tell there are a lot of people who are pretty unhappy with the decision."
from WWOS http://wwos.nine.com.au/tennis/french-open-rescheduled-coronavirus-laver-cup-clash-sam-groth/f17636a4-4b31-4d71-9f3c-7c6f660410b4
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