French Fed Cup team disharmony

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

French Fed Cup team disharmony

skibbarriz · Strong Club Player

Yes, i was reading this yesterday. It follows a well known tennis rule. The more men you have in the top 100 as a nation, the more chance at least one of them will be a tool. As a player facing him, the most important thing is to be forewarned and be aware of his reputation. Otherwise hearing that your opponent spent half his presser talking about how rubbish he thinks you are could be a shock.

http://tennis.life/2017/04/18/time-self-rant-benoit-paire/

And here's one on topic on French Fed Cup.

http://tennis.life/2017/04/15/french-tennis-drama-federation-dysfunction/

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Well, quelle surprise and all that....

Seemingly, if Oceane Dodin is sanctioned (for refusing to play for the Fed Cup and as per above), this will not affect her place at Roland Garros, says the FFT president. You never say, stone the crows and all that .....

However, L'Equipe (major French sport newspaper) published a report saying they made it to be that Dodin had recieved 400,000 euros in FFT support since 'the start of her career' (don't know quite when they are putting that)

They've calculated this as:
100,000 in direct sponsorship from the FFT
100,000 - 150,000 for the remuneration of her FFT tennis coach, for one year (2014-15)
150,000 for wildcards given (5 at RG and 7 in other French tournaments)

NB They note that Dodin, growing up. didn't go to one of the major elite tennis centres but stayed at home. The cost of training a young player through the FFT system, as most do, at one of these centres from age 11-22, is put at 1 million euros, per player.

steven · Tennis legend

Kiki has found a novel way to make life awkward for the FFT - beating Sharapova today means that Maria won't make the qualifying cut, so the FFT can't duck the decision over a (qualifying or main draw) wild card. Though I have a horrible feeling they were going to give her a main draw WC anyway

the addict · Tennis legend

I, for one, am glad they didn't get the easy option

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

skibarriz started this thread, obviously knowing Fed Cup controversy was going to run and run.....

For those who care, the polemic with top players and the FFT continues....

Caro Garcia says she was not consulted/informed about the choice of Benneteau as captain, cites a new lack of respect, that the FFT are ridiculous in claiming there's a problem with her licence, that they go out of their way to make life hard for her, etc. etc. etc.

(Dodin, I believe, has no intention of kissing and making up with the FFT either)

JonH · All-time great

They come across as behaving as if they are spoilt brats and entitled. I may be wrong!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

This is not French Fed Cup disharmony but French federation shame....

Firstly, as noted very quietly in passing by the ITF when all the Davis Cup stuff was going down, the ITF changed their laws, actually amended their constitution, to allow the French FFT president to continue to be on the board - he should have become automatically ineligible when he was convicted of defamation.

Secondly, Giudicelli has now come out and said that Serena Williams showed a lack of respect for Roland Garros by wearing her black catsuit. And he likes to look at 'beautiful' things. It should be noted that RG does not have a dress code, and never has. And beauty is not a prerequisite for tennis, not to mention that it is in the eye of the beholder anyway.

THis is part, in my view, of a very nasty French male attitude that is rather prevalent whereby, although women are very well represented in the civil service, government etc (all good), they are expected to be cute, well-turned out and feminine.
For those who want to be cute and feminine, that's great - and actually it is also good that women do not feel that they have to power dress like men to be taken seriously.
But there are often a lot of nasty comments about Serena behind closed doors - there were also the same about Mary Pierce, it's not racial, in my view, nor anti-American. But basically Giudicelli wants women to wear little dresses and skirts and be cute and cutesy.

Thankfully, there's been a huge backlash on Twitter today (this is the country, remember, that bans the wearing of the burka in public because it infringes women's human rights by imposing a male view of what they should wear - an interesting discussion - but the irony of Giucidelli now trying to tell women what to wear is obvious to many)

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Friday 24th of August 2018 01:14:09 PM

Born2WinTennis · Club Coach

It's astonishing that he is allowed to remain a very senior official in numerous tennis organisations.