What. A. Mess.
Okay, so “today” (I use the term loosely during the Asian Swing) we had Serena Williams, Jelena Jankovic, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic all contesting finals in Beijing. And yet, when I woke up, the biggest tennis drama wasn’t even on that continent.
Instead, it was all the way over at the small WTA International event in Linz, Austria.
First, let’s go back to simpler times. Yesterday. Before the draw was made, Petra Kvitova pulled out of the tournament with back problems, which was obviously a shame for everyone involved. I can’t find an old PDF of the draw, because presumably the WTA scrubbed them all from the Internet, but according to Tennis Forum, this is what the draw looked like:
Stephens(1) vs Rybarikova
Petkovic vs Meusburger
Moser(WC) vs Voegele
Knapp vs Hantuchova(7)Flipkens(4) vs Wickmayer
Ka. Pliskova vs Schiavone
Begu vs Q
Beck vs Cibulkova(6)Zakopalova(8) vs Vekic
Goerges vs Q
Svitolina vs Barthel
Q vs Suarez Navarro(3)Cirstea(5) VS Mayr-Achleitner(WC)
Q vs Q
Cadantu vs Klaffner(WC)
Niculescu vs Ivanovic(2)
As you can see, Sloane Stephens was the top seed (her first time), Ana Ivanovic was the No. 2 seed, and overall it just looked like a decent International event, but nothing really to write home about. The biggest story of the tournament was Stephens trying to get to her first WTA final and trying to earn enough points to qualify for Istanbul.
But then, madness ensued.
Angelique Kerber got a last-minute WC. A VERY last-minute WC, considering THE DRAW HAD ALREADY BEEN MADE. According to everything I have ever known as a tennis fan and everything I could find in the rule book today, WCs are supposed to be locked by the time the qualifying draw is made on Friday.
So now, here is what the draw looks like:
(2)Stephens vs Rybarikova
Petkovic vs Meusburger
Zakopalova vs Voegele
Knapp vs (8)Hantuchova(3)Ivanovic vs Wickmayer
Ka. Pliskova vs Schiavone
Begu vs Q/LL
Beck vs (7)Cibulkova(5)Flipkens vs Vekic
Goerges vs Q/LL
Svitolina vs Barthel
Q/LL vs (4)Suarez Navarro(6)Cirstea vs (wc)Mayr-Achleitner
Q/LL vs Q/LL
Cadantu vs (wc)Klaffner
Niculescu vs (1/wc)Kerber
Yes. Mess. Let’s focus in on the bottom part of the official “revised” WTA draw to start breaking down everything that is wrong with this situation.
1. In order to give Kerber a WC, someone else had to go. That “someone” was local player Lisa-Maria Moser, No. 337.
The official reason on the draw sheet for Moser pulling out was “personal reasons,” which is completely ridiculous because it is 100% clear that the only reason she withdrew from the tournament was because the tournament officials made her do it.
Moser: "This is obviously a shame for me, but I can understand. A top-10 player is very important for the tourney, I cannot blame anyone."
— Romi Cvitkovic (@RomiCvitkovic) October 6, 2013
After all, according to the Linz website, “As a small compensation Moser occurs in the doubles with a wildcard at the side of Nicole Rottmann.”
So Moser, who was a player representative and looking forward to playing singles in front of her hometown crowd, was sacrificed.
More Linz insanity…after Moser withdrew from singles for "personal reasons," she got a WC into doubles. Was her personal reason loneliness?
— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) October 6, 2013
2. As you can see on the draw, even though Kerber gets the No. 1 seed, she is in the official draw spot of the No. 2 player. So Stephens keeps her perch at the top of the draw, despite the fact that she’s no longer the top seed, and Kerber takes over the bottom. All of this raises the question … what happened to former No. 2 seed Ana Ivanovic?
Well, let’s take a look at the top half of this “revised” draw:
Aaah, there she is! So now, instead of getting a fairly straightforward (It’s Ivanovic, so I mean “straightforward” only in theory) half of the draw to herself, she now has to face Wickmayer in the first round, possibly Schiavone in the second round, Cibulkova in the quarters, and Stephens in the semis. As you can imagine, she was not very happy:
One of those things when you realise you're powerless… No matter what they say! #linzdraw
— Ana Ivanovic (@anaivanovic) October 6, 2013
Ivanovic just happened to be the player representative for Linz, along with Moser. I sense a mutiny brewing behind the scenes.
3. Another issue that is coming up in all of this is that this will now be the third International tournament that Kerber has entered this year. Since she finished 2012 as a Top 10 player, she is only supposed to be allowed to enter two Internationals.
How is the WTA getting around that?
Reason why Kerber allowed to play 3rd International Series in Linz is cause Carlsbad was oversubscribed so DC didnt count to her allotment
— Matt Cronin (@TennisReporters) October 6, 2013
Sure. That seems awfully convenient.
4. The biggest takeaway from all of this for me is: what a difference a day makes. If Kerber had simply taken the WC yesterday before the draw was set, then none of this uproar would have happened.
https://twitter.com/unseededlooming/status/386828050681184257
(Maybe we just won’t get into that.)
As it stands, everything is technically within the rules, if you squint and pretend that one of the WCs wasn’t forced out of the tournament after the draw was made just to appease the officials.
As our friend Foot Soldiers of Tennis pointed out, according to the WTA rulebook, if a WC withdraws prior to the start of the main draw, then it is within the guidelines that a new WC can be named and a draw can be shuffled accordingly.
So, there you have it. #LinzGate in a nutshell.
We’ll keep you posted if there any further developments.
EDIT:
As I was reminded on Twitter, there is only one draw spot available for a Top 10 player in Internationals, so before Kvitova withdrew, Kerber could not have entered.
– Kerber was most likely on a plane from Beijing to Europe when Kvitova withdrew 2 hours before the draw.
– The draw was redone according to the usual rules for replacing seeds. The ATP and the ITF use the same procedure.
– Moser (then ranked #725) got a WC into Bad Gastein by the same tournament organizers earlier this year. More than half of her total ranking points are from Bad Gastein, so Sandra Reichel (The Linz and Bad Gastein Tournament Director) had already done her a big favor this year.
– They then did her another big favor by handing her another WC (into a tournament where, even with the Bad Gastein points, she wouldn’t even have been eligible to play Qualifying), but when the tournament found themselves in a terrible situation (their Top 10 player withdrawing 2 hours before the draw), they asked her to withdraw.
– They are 100% transparent about it, they didn’t invent an injury, they are openly saying on the homepage that they have asked her to withdraw so that they could give the WC to Kerber).
I really don’t see what the uproar is all about.
It was too late for another one WC (the draw was made) – it is funny to state as a reason for withdrawal in singles “personal reasons” and give the same player WC for doubles competition. Bojana Jovanovski has to play qualifications in Tashkent because she entered the tournament after the draw was made and she was the best ranked player. Kerber got the draw of the the second seed although she is the top seed. This is a great shame for the tournament in Linz. Players are punished for match-fixing. Perhaps there should be some punishment for tournament organizers.
I printed a copy of the original draw, and I can confirm your rendition of it is correct. (I’d send a picture of it, but I’ve already scrawled “FUBAR” across it.)
I’m a Kerber fan and would like to see her qualify for Istanbul, but not this way. Even if the tournament can find a way to paint the process as complying with the rules, it’s sordid and wrong. It’s unfair to all the players whose draws were altered, and their fans. It’s not like this happened due to an unavoidable injury—it happened because after all the deadlines had passed, the tournament organizers saw an opportunity to add another big name and sell more tickets.
Yes, Angelique did play two international tourney’s already but as the WTA has explained, Carlsbad was full so her DC tourney did not count as an international entry. I don’t think its an issue. Wildcards are issued at the tournament’s discretion. Osaka’s tournament was revised after Jankovic withdrew at the 11th hour. A player ranked #700 + like Lisa is most likely going to get double bagelled – and a top 10 player is a huge attraction for many fans. I know I would go to this tournament now to see Kerber play. You have to do what is best for the tournament. If this was Serena, no one would be saying anything. Give Kerber a break – Ivanovic should not be posting either as it was done within the rules. Good luck to all in Linz!
Yeah, it’s a mess, but considering the tourney’s options, Kerber was their savior. I wouldn’t be surprised if she got a huge appearance fee (or as huge as Linz can get) for taking the last minute wildcard. Sucks for Moser, but at that very low level, what can you expect? If she wanted to get in, she should’ve played qualies like everyone else. The tournament probably gave her some “lonely” money. (Love Ben’s tweet!)
After going to the Thailand Open and talking to some of the qualifiers and wild card entrants, and seeing them all get blown out in early rounds, it’s just not fun for spectators to watch. And her fans? Stack them up against the number of people who will now buy tickets to see Kerber and it’s pretty clear.
Want to play? Earn your spot.
And don’t even get me started on Sloane or Ana! When Sloane makes ONE WTA final (much less win a tournament), I’ll talk about her. As of now, severely over-hyped. And Ana? If she truly feels she’s back on track to make Top 10 and deserves to be there, she really shouldn’t complain. But if she continues the way she does, hot for one tournament, cold for three, then there you have it. Again. Earn it.
/rant over/
If Serena Williams had done this they would have thrashed her in the media as being an evil diva queen picking on Moser. Kerber on the other hand (we just love her) knows this is wrong to take a wild card when the draw is complete. Kerber should have played better in the earlier part of the year then she wouldn’t be going thru this fiasco at the last minute. Ivanovic is correct to post she got pushed in Sloane’s (haven’t won anything this year) section for no good reason. This is not about legal right according to the WTA this is plain and simply not ethical of Kerber to accept that wildcard and push another player out for the sake of her last minute scramble. Also note Ana hold the head to head over Kerber 3-1 so I don’t think that will go over well with her that maybe a higher rank player got her space but not necessarily a better player! The tournament directors should be ashamed of themselves for this stupidity.
I just wished that Kerber and Stephens changed spots in the draw like it supposed to be. Also, just read that Wozniacki is less than 280 pts behind Kerber with Stephens and Vinci still in striking distance. Stephens is scheduled to play Luxembourg next week with Vinci going to Moscow.
It stinks for Moser and am hoping she got compensated well for basically getting the wildcard taken back.
On Ivanovic’s tweet, I find it hilarious that she’s complaining about another player getting a wildcard seeing as how she’s gotten 2 wildcards to the Tournament of Champions even though she hasn’t won a single regular tournament since Linz 2010. Double standards much?
This is completely unfair; no matter what is Moser ranking, she was in the draw, she had the right to play: it happens all over the world that the local player has a chance to compete in a main draw. Not only for Moser but also for the players in the draw, the players competing for Instambul, the audience, the fans, this is utterly unfair! The worst way to celebrate the end of the 40-LOVE WTA anniversary.
Devil’s advocate and, maybe, big picture.
The argument above is clearly principal vs commerce, and no one should be surprised that commerce has won.
But what if this wasn’t “naked commerce” – trying to make a fat profit by bringing in Kerber – but “survival commerce” – having your star attraction withdraw thus having to bring in another big star to avoid falling ticket sales and threatening the existence of the tournament. It isn’t easy in Europe these days: Austrian GDP is set to grow by 0.4 per cent this year (that’s not much) and there are probably a host of potential tournaments waiting to take the place of a small town (population: 190,000) – Sao Paulo, Moscow, Delhi, Shanghai.
Now that’s naked commerce.