brittak wrote:

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Stan Wawrinka has written an open letter to the Times today about the Gimelstob affair and the decline of morals in tennis generally at the moment. An interesting read.

I cant seem to share the link though so dont know if someone else knows how to do so?

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 Here is the letter

Sir,

The past six months have been eventful for the ATP and mens professional tennis. Sadly, politics have overshadowed the action on the courts, and I feel compelled to express my views on this regrettable period in our sport. This episode has left many players, myself included, concerned about the direction tennis is heading in.

I started playing at the age of eight, the son of a farmer. My parents and this sport have taught me about real values, fighting hard with passion, commitment and determination, but most importantly with integrity and honesty. I have always been taught to stand up for what I believe in, and I believe that anyone associated with tennis should espouse these values.

What I have witnessed in the last few months is a worrying decline in moral standards.

I am relieved that Justin Gimelstob has finally had the decency to resign from the ATP board after being sentenced for assault, but I am dismayed by how long this took. I am also concerned that many within the game think this episode is now over, and are simply relieved at having avoided any negative press themselves. This is not good enough. We are ALL accountable and we must ALL learn from this.

There is no place in our sport for those who behave like Justin. The lack of responses from people involved in the game, particularly at the beginning of this saga, when he was charged last December, was alarming. This is a situation where silence amounts to complicity.

My fellow players on the council should never have been put in the position where they had responsibility for deciding whether Justin should have remained in his position. It is the duty of the board representatives to lead by example and protect the players. They should have immediately managed this controversy. Instead they shamefully voted in December for Justin to continue with his duties.

Many players feel that they were not represented properly throughout the last few months, during which so much has happened politically. I agree with them. I do not want to be associated with anyone who played a part in this, let alone be represented by them. I want to be represented by people with clear, strong ethical values.

Some people feel that the governance structure of the ATP does not work, that its too cumbersome, impossible to represent both players and tournaments. But I fundamentally believe in this system. The fault lies not in the structure, but in the calibre of people within it. There are numerous conflicts of interest to address throughout the whole sport.

Tennis is a selfish sport. Inherently people are too concerned with their own interests. This inevitably causes difficulties in the management of the tour, which have escalated in recent months.

At the end of last year, we saw record results for the ATP and mens tennis. Now look at us. This political chaos is caused by a handful of people with personal agendas and, more disturbingly, with no alternative plan to follow up on their concerted plot to remove Chris Kermode, the executive chairman and president, earlier this year.

These moral issues are by no means unique to tennis. Indeed it feels these days as if every time you open a newspaper, another scandal is unfolding, whether it be in politics, Hollywood or the corporate world. It is more important than ever that anyone with a public platform leads by example and demonstrates real values honesty, kindness, trust, friendship.

I am by no means perfect, as a man or as an athlete. I have been divorced and have made many a mistake during my 17-year career as a professional.

But I am passionate about tennis, proud to be a part of this great sport and determined to speak up where I see us letting ourselves down. This is a sport with global appeal, to men, women and children of all ages and all cultures. We have a responsibility to be the best we can be.

I hope our sport can put this dreadful period behind us, move forward and embrace the future.

Stan Wawrinka
Professional tennis player, Switzerland

Thanks JonH

I am a firm believer that someone is innocent until proven guilty, and so I can't see how in all conscience Mr Gimelstob could have been removed until he admitted his malfeasance (or was found guilty) other then by himself, but I absolutely agree that he cannot now be allowed to take part in any form of tennis governance - or even tennis activity - this makes offences like our own Mr Evans' pale into insignificance. What makes this offence particularly galling is Mr Gimelstob's complete denial of the facts right up to the point where he decided not to contest the charges, and since then his absolute lack of any sort of apology or remorse.

I fail to see how even personal friends of his can continue to pretend that he is a fit human being, but it does seem that nowadays we are in an age of results counting more than the methods, and in an age where the (super-) rich really can choose to be judged by a different metric than the rest of us.

flamingowings wrote:

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I'm sure I read somewhere that there is video footage of the attack. I may be wrong. But if there is and it conclusively shows it, I don't see how he can be innocent.

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 I'm the last person to defend Gimelstob but video footage does not prove 'guilt' of a crime.

Video footage may prove he attacked her but, for instance, there are defences that would make that him innocent (e.g. self-defence, necessity, insanity, sleep-walking etc. etc.). Not to mention questions of rigged videos or whatever. 

Again, not saying any of those apply but just that innocent until proven guilty is vital, as christ says, and a video does not 'prove' guilt 

Yes; my point was more in the abstract than applied to Gimelstob, that the fact someone 'did it' doesn't make them guilty.

Here www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2019/04/23/judge-warns-justin-gimelstob-not-offer-public-denial-violent/9