MELBOURNE, Australia — It was a news-making Australian Open for women's tennis with the emergence of young talent, a major upset of Serena Williams by the 19-year-old Sloane Stephens and a controversy over medical timeouts involving the eventual champion Victoria Azarenka.
More developments lie ahead with the Women's Tennis Association still searching for new sponsorship and preparing to start official site visits for the five candidate cities bidding to stage the W.T.A. Championships beginning in 2014. The intent is to announce the winner in April.
On the eve of the women's final in Melbourne, Stacey Allaster, the chairman and chief executive of the WTA, discussed the state of the game. An edited version of that interview:
Some exciting new women's players have really emerged here, particularly from the United States with Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys and Jamie Hampton. Thoughts?
It's been a great open for that. Sloane's the whole package, and they'll all just push each other. Laura Robson and Heather Watson will do the same. And there's also Ash Barty, a good young player I hadn't seen before.
What did you think about the medical timeout controversy with Azarenka against Stephens? What needs to happen in the aftermath?
I know Vika pretty well, and she's a good girl. And I think she probably just thought I'm going to play through this and get through it and that game was just too much and she had to call it. Probably in hindsight she would have done it differently and then after that, I think it's the judgment of the medical experts. It's their responsibility to ensure the health and well-being of the athlete. They made a determination that she needed a medical treatment and followed it and according to the rules. It's not Vika's fault it took 10 minutes.
Still, consecutive medical timeouts are very unusual.
For sure. I don't have the details on that. I just know the medical experts followed the medical timeout according to the rules, but certainly there is always something that happens in a situation like this. And the supervisors will have a debrief after a Slam to review it. Does something need to be modified for the future? We'll see. On the WTA, we obviously have different rules. We put a limit on the number of medical timeouts you could have in a calendar year in the WTA. It's six and if they need more, they pay a fee, and there's nothing like attaching monetary deterrent to an athlete because they don't want to pay so we actually saw a reduction in our medical timeouts once we instituted our rule a couple years ago.
What about the notion that you should not be able to take a medical timeout like that before someone else's serve unless it's a true emergency? Should the rule be tightened?
Look, I agree with Vika that it wasn't the ideal time. Possibly, if that rule was like that then that would have encouraged Vika to take it earlier, but I bet you she just thought, 'I'm going to play through this.' And it got to be too much. It's not like a team sport where you can take somebody out and keep it going. If you are the doctor and someone can't breathe and it's 40 degrees out there, you have to treat that seriously. So we have to trust those people and respect that it's controversial and that it's not crystal clear to us so we have to go with the medical expert and their opinion.
Word is, you are close to a major sponsorship deal after a long search. True?
I'm really optimistic. In my year-end address I mentioned that I was optimistic we might have one or two new global partners. I remain optimistic. Stay tuned.
Your perspective on the ongoing negotiations with the Grand Slam tournaments over getting big increases in prize money?
We're working directly with each Grand Slam. I think obviously Tennis Australia stepped up here. The French Open is making a big effort.
Have heard they're talking about a big increase — perhaps as much as $10 million Euros total — over the next three years?
I think everyone is working hard at fairly compensating our athletes and it remains to be seen where we get to with Wimbledon and the U.S. Open and the final proposal and plan that the French Open comes with. I must say that the Slams have heard the athletes and it's always going to be a pathway to getting there and now we have to see if they come through but certainly Tennis Australia hit it out of the park. They did a good job.
Did the Grand Slam leaders meeting with the WTA players in Istanbul at your championships last year make a difference?
Yes. The athletes are key to this business and the Slams need to chat with them and hear them and what their concerns are. It was very constructive and that's where those conversations need to stay. Keep it in the boardroom and not in the media and let's see where we get to.
I spoke with International Tennis Federation president Francesco Ricci Bitti, who said that tennis is serious about trying to upgrade its antidoping efforts. He is backing the introduction of the biological passport used by cycling and track and field. Where does the WTA stand?
I think we're completely open to ensuring that our sport stays clean and if more investment is required then that's something we are absolutely committed to, so I think coming out of this Slam, the tennis antidoping group is going to sit and look and be prudent about how we go forward. It's obviously a very sophisticated area.
How much pressure does the Lance Armstrong case put on tennis?
I mean it's just so unfair to all professional athletes and everyone in sport, that this one guy can cast now this black cloud over athletes that are clean. And our program is very good. It doesn't mean we don't have to stay diligent and keep fighting at it and making sure it stays at the very best, but it's a tragedy what he did to sports, himself, his family. I watched that interview, and I thought, 'How could you do that to your kids? How do you do that?' Those kids, how are they going to grow up? It's tragic. There's also the good, humanitarian in him so it's just messed up, big time. But I don't know how a sport keeps that quiet for that many years with that many people involved.
So should tennis push forward with a biological passport program?
If that's what we need to do, yes. I'm a neophyte in the technical aspects of it. We have the whereabouts program. We've got better sophistication now and probably the next level for us is to look at the passport and more blood testing.
Are the top women being tested enough out of competition or better to increase that for your own sense of due diligence?
If the experts who deal with this come back and say, 'This is our recommendation on the way forward, and we want to take our program up to two notches' and if that's what it means, I'm supportive and our athletes will be, as well.
Li Na back in a Grand Slam final. What's the impact for women's tennis in and out of China?
She's a national hero and nothing like being able to go to the dance again so I think people will rally around her. By 2014, we're going to have five events in China plus three 125s. That's eight events. We're really starting to have a footprint there so it's going to be helpful.
Have read speculation that there may be need for another head this year for the WTA. That was very surprising based on your recent comments. Any truth in that?
I was shocked by that myself. I definitely read it. I just started a new five-year contract and had the best annual review I ever had. There's nothing you're missing.
Brad Drewett, your counterpart at the ATP, has just announced he's suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease and plans to step down. I know you know him well.
It's brutal. It's horrific. It snaps you back and brings you back to reality. He's a good guy, a very good guy, and it's just not fair.
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