Ends up pleading guilty and gets community service sentence. Atp should now fire him, I'm all for giving people a chance but this type of crime means he has no place on atp board.
Apparently the above is fake news. He has not yet entered a plea. I'd recommend following Stephanie Myles who's on site mobile.twitter.com/StefMylesTennis
Regardless he looks to be on thin ice given previous comments about female players and on going issues, hopefully he will have a sensible explanation, I understand his father died shortly before the alleged assault on the friend of his ex wife. Although his position with the ATP and in the tennis media may be untenable, he may well need some help.
At a time of growing tension within the ATP (players v promoters) the genial Kermode is exactly the kind of bloke you'd want to resolve it. Greedy Djokovic and his mates will live to regret this.
Is it too cynical to ask whether Djokovic et al might have been given some financial incentive to support the anti Kermode faction? It's odd that the vast majority of players and coaches seem to be pro Kermode (or at least all the tweets I've seen suggest this) and yet all those on the player council are anti.
There seems to be a big US contingent on the player council also.
Back in the day, the Tour was run by the ITF , or an offshoot of them called the MIPTC (I think) and the ATP was a players union. The ATP did a coup one year at the US Open (the famous parking lot press conference) and took over the running of the Tour. So the ATP became a Tour body and represented the events and the players. Clearly some of the players believe they need to back to having their own players union/body which is separate from the ATP and , on one level I get that - the ATP can't effectively do both jobs independently and they only represent those players on the Tour itself, no one really represents the vaster and wider set of players suffering with all these ITF related changes - I dont know if that is what Djoko et al want as no one is explaining why they dont like Kermode other than in vague terms. But given Kermode's job was to run and grow a tour, demonstrated by events and prizemoney increasing, then he has clearly done that and appears to have done a good job. Whether they feel he is too on the side of the events, I dont know, but that seems to be pretty inevitable given that the ATP is nowadays a Tour trying to juggle the interests of both sides and not just a players union.
Getting rid of Kermode doesnt seem the answer. It is worth saying that the PGA in the USA and in Europe are also players bodies that run their respective tours and look after the interests of the players and the events. So the model doesnt seem to be broken as a concept, maybe there is some dark issue in the background. And it will be money related.
Is it too cynical to ask whether Djokovic et al might have been given some financial incentive to support the anti Kermode faction? It's odd that the vast majority of players and coaches seem to be pro Kermode (or at least all the tweets I've seen suggest this) and yet all those on the player council are anti.
I see that Fed, among many others, is expressing his surprise and disappointment over the way the decision was made. He tried to talk to Djokovic prior to the vote but in his own words ......
Unfortunately he [Djokovic] had no time, said Federer. Thats hard to understand for me I want to know what the motive was, [and] what Kermode does not seem to have done well. I would have tended to be more for him.
Nadal has voiced his concerns too. I had read Djokovic saying he hadn't talked to Fed or Rafa about the issue. I think he may have said "unfortunately..." too. Yes, quite apart from being such greats in the game and held in high esteem by most, very unfortunate if Fed wanted to talk to him. Novak is such a busy guy
Nadal has voiced his concerns too. I had read Djokovic saying he hadn't talked to Fed or Rafa about the issue. I think he may have said "unfortunately..." too. Yes, quite apart from being such greats in the game and held in high esteem by most, very unfortunate if Fed wanted to talk to him. Novak is such a busy guy
Looking more and more like a minority coup.
That's appalling. Didn't have too much time for Djokovic and have even less now, if he really couldn't be bothered to talk to either Federer or Nadal. And I bet Andy didn't feature at all in his consciousness despite the wise head that he has. But somehow don't think it was wisdom Djokovic was looking for.
-- Edited by Michael D on Tuesday 12th of March 2019 12:23:47 AM
Don't think Djokovic 'couldn't be bothered' to talk to Fed, Nadal etc.
Think he actively didn't want to.
Or many others either, from all accounts.
Which wouldn't matter really if it was just a question of respect or whatever
But he was on the player council, supposedly representing the players !