Evelyn Reynolds

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    Djokovic Granted Covid-19 Vaccine Exemption to Play in Australian Open

    Novak Djokovic, the world’s No. 1-ranked male tennis player and his sport’s most prominent vaccination skeptic, said on Tuesday that he would play in this month’s Australian Open after receiving a medical exemption.Djokovic, the men’s tournament’s defending champion, revealed his plans in a post on his Instagram account alongside a photograph of himself with luggage on an airport tarmac. “I’m heading Down Under with an exemption permission,” he wrote. “Let’s go 2022.”Tournament officials confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that Djokovic had received a medical exemption after a review of his application by two independent panels, a procedure that strongly suggests he remains unvaccinated.Djokovic’s participation in the Australian Open, the tennis season’s first major, was in doubt as recently as last week, when he reportedly withdrew from an event in Sydney. Djokovic, who has had Covid, has consistently refused to say whether he has been inoculated or intends to be.According to the rules for the Australian Open, all participants must be vaccinated against the coronavirus or apply for and receive a medical exemption from an independent panel of experts.In December, Djokovic’s father, Srdjan Djokovic, raised new questions about his son’s participation, and his vaccination status, when he suggested that Djokovic was unlikely to play in Australia “under these blackmails and conditions.”Those comments came only days before Novak Djokovic was named as a participant in the Australian Open by the tournament’s organizers when they released the entry list for the main draw.“Defending champion Djokovic will play for an incredible 10th Australian Open trophy — and a men’s record 21st major singles title — and will be the favorite in a draw which showcases 49 of the world’s top 50,” the tournament said in a statement announcing the field.But Craig Tiley, the chief executive of Tennis Australia, which hosts the tournament, quickly moved to clarify that Djokovic’s inclusion in the entry list was not a confirmation that he had agreed to be vaccinated, or that he would be allowed to enter Australia, which has some of the world’s most strict coronavirus protocols for foreigners.“As a matter of course, everyone goes on the entry list,” Tiley said in a local television interview at the time. “It’s not a commitment list about who’s exactly in the draw. That comes in several weeks’ time, when the actual list, and draw, gets finalized for the Australian Open.”The Open’s draw will be held Jan. 10. The tournament begins on Jan. 17. More

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    Peng Shuai, Chinese Tennis Player, Denies Sexual Assault Claim

    Peng Shuai said in an interview with a Singaporean newspaper that she had been misunderstood. She also said, “I’ve been very free all along.”Peng Shuai, the Chinese tennis star whose account of sexual coercion by a former Communist Party leader ignited weeks of tensions and galvanized calls for boycotts of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, has reversed her assertion that she had been sexually assaulted by the official.Ms. Peng made the comments in an interview that was published on Sunday by a Singaporean newspaper. But the retraction appeared unlikely to extinguish concerns about her well-being and suspicions that she had been the target of well-honed pressure techniques and a propaganda campaign by Chinese officials.The controversy erupted last month when Ms. Peng wrote in a post on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, that she had maintained a yearslong, on-and-off relationship with Zhang Gaoli, now 75, a retired Chinese vice premier. She said that in an encounter with him about three years ago, she had “never consented” and that she was “crying all the time.”She then abruptly dropped from public view, and global concern for her whereabouts grew. In a written statement later, she appeared to seek to pull back the accusation, and the Women’s Tennis Association and other professional players rallied to her side, saying they believed that her statement had been written under official duress.The tennis association suspended playing matches in China while seeking to establish independent contact with Ms. Peng. Last week, the leaders of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee criticized China’s handling of Ms. Peng’s case.In the interview with Lianhe Zaobao, a Chinese-language Singaporean newspaper, Ms. Peng, 35, said, “First, I want to stress a very important point — I never said or wrote that anyone sexually assaulted me.”“There may have been misunderstandings by everyone,” she said of her initial post on Weibo.Ms. Peng also denied that she had been under house arrest or that she had been forced to make any statements against her will.“Why would someone keep watch over me?” she said. “I’ve been very free all along.”Her denial drew skepticism from human rights advocates, who have said that Chinese officials appear to have corralled her into rehearsed video appearances.Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, said on Twitter that Ms. Peng’s latest statement was “only deepening concerns about the pressure to which the Chinese government is subjecting her.”Last month, video clips of her at a Beijing restaurant were posted on the Twitter account of the chief editor of The Global Times, an influential newspaper run by the Communist Party. The editor described them as showing Ms. Peng having dinner with her coach and friends. She also appeared in live video calls with the president of the International Olympic Committee and other officials with the organization.The Chinese authorities are likely to seize on Ms. Peng’s latest statement, recorded on video, to push back against calls for a full investigation of her claims and to oppose the tennis association’s suspension of matches in China.The minutes-long interview with Ms. Peng, which took place at a skiing competition in Shanghai, left many key questions unasked and unanswered.She was not asked directly about her relationship with Mr. Zhang, who was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the Communist Party’s highest body. Nor was she asked how her understanding of sexual assault squared with her earlier description of what had happened with Mr. Zhang.Understand the Disappearance of Peng ShuaiCard 1 of 5Where is Peng Shuai? More

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    Manuel Santana, Influential Spanish Tennis Champion, Dies at 83

    He won the French Open twice and captured the U.S. National Championships and Wimbledon, as well as winning at the 1968 Olympics.MADRID — Manuel Santana, who as one of Spain’s first great tennis champions won four Grand Slam titles in the 1960s and heralded his country’s arrival as a tennis powerhouse, died on Saturday in Marbella, the beach town in southern Spain where he had long lived and managed a tennis club. He was 83.His death was announced by the Mutua Madrid Open tennis tournament, where Santana was honorary president. No cause was given, but Marcos García Montes, a lawyer and close friend of his, told a Spanish television show that Santana had died of a heart attack. He had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.Santana, the first Spaniard to win a Grand Slam event, rose to the top echelon of world tennis during the amateur era by winning the U.S. National Championships at Forest Hills, Queens, Wimbledon and the French Open, twice. He also represented Spain in winning a gold medal in singles and a silver in doubles at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City (when tennis was a demonstration sport at the Games).His victories inspired a host of Spanish players, who have kept Spain among the most successful countries in tennis to this day.That progeny includes Manuel Orantes, Carlos Moyá, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and Conchita Martínez. The greatest of them all, Rafael Nadal, a 20-time Grand Slam champion, called Santana his role model on Twitter. “A thousand thanks for what you did for our country and for opening the way for others,” he said.Santana, who never played in the Australian Open, and Sánchez Vicario are second to Nadal in Slam victories, with four each.Santana won 72 tournaments in his career. His first success in a Grand Slam came in 1961 in Paris on his favorite surface, clay. He defeated two Australian stars, Roy Emerson and Rod Laver, before capturing the final against Italy’s Nicola Pietrangeli, a two-time winner in Paris. Three years later, Santana defeated Pietrangeli again in the French Open.In 1965, Santana established his credentials on grass, the surface he had once derided as made for cows and the one used at the time by three of the Grand Slam tournaments: Wimbledon, Forest Hills and the Australian Open. He became the first European in almost four decades to win at Forest Hills that year, beating Cliff Drysdale in the final of the tournament, which was later renamed the U.S. Open.The next year, Santana skipped the French Open to better prepare for Wimbledon. The strategy worked: He defeated Dennis Ralston in the final. Upon receiving the trophy, Santana sought to kiss the hand of the Duchess of Kent, a breach of royal protocol. But the breach endeared him further to Spanish fans, who viewed him as a charismatic and warmhearted product of society’s margins in a sport once considered a realm of the elite.Manuel Santana Martínez was born on May 10, 1938, in Madrid. His father, Braulio Santana, was an electrician who was imprisoned after the Spanish Civil War and died when his son, known as Manolo, was a teenager. His mother, Mercedes Martínez, was a homemaker who struggled to raise her four children in an apartment building in which all the residents shared a single bathroom.Santana started at the Velázquez tennis club in Madrid as a ball boy, skipping school to collect tips from tennis players and earn money to support his mother. Tennis drew him, he said, because of the distance between competitors. “For somebody who always hated violence, a sport in which a net prevented physical contact felt like it was made for me,” he told the newspaper La Rioja of Logroño.At the club, he regularly prepared the clay court for two siblings from a wealthy family, Álvaro and Aurora Romero Girón. The two took an interest in Manuel and encouraged him to combine tennis with a commitment to school, while also providing financial support for Santana’s mother.When he was 13, he won the ball boys tournament at the Velázquez club and was officially admitted as a member. His game developed, and Santana, relying on an effective topspin, powerful forehand and craftily disguised drop shots, won the Spanish junior championships in 1955.“His game was pretty unique, and even though he was one of the best clay courters ever, he could play on anything,” said Stan Smith, the American former top player and president of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, which inducted Santana in 1984. “He was an ultimate big occasion competitor, but I don’t know anyone who didn’t like and respect him,” Smith added, in a statement on the hall’s website.After retiring as a tennis player, Santana went on to be captain of Spain’s Davis Cup team from 1980 to 1985 and 1995 to 1999. He managed two tennis clubs — in Madrid as well as Marbella — and until 2019 was the tournament director of the Mutua Madrid Open, whose center court was named after him.A fixture on the Spanish social scene, Santana was married four times and had five children. He is survived by his wife, Claudia Rodríguez; three children, Beatriz, Manolo and Borja, by his first wife, María Fernanda González-Dopeso; a daughter, Bárbara, with Bárbara Oltra; and another daughter, Alba, whose mother, Mila Ximénez, was a well-known Spanish journalist who died this year. Santana’s 1990 marriage to Otti Glanzelius, a former Swedish model, ended in divorce in 2009. More

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    U.S.T.A. Chief Michael Dowse Stepping Down After Two Years

    During his relatively brief tenure at the U.S.T.A., Dowse has had to navigate the coronavirus pandemic and the financial pressures it created.In an unexpected move, Michael Dowse, the leader of the United States Tennis Association, announced on Wednesday that he would leave the organization in March.The decision caught players, officials and U.S.T.A. board members by surprise. Dowse, 55, has been officially in his post as the association’s chief executive officer and executive director for less than two years.His predecessor, Gordon Smith, spent 12 years in the position, but Dowse, the former president of Wilson Sporting Goods Co., said he was ready to move on from having day-to-day management duties at a single organization.“After 15 years of being president or CEO, I am ready for more balance in my life and moving more into the role of adviser, consultant or board member in the broader arena of sports,” Dowse said in a statement to The New York Times.During his relatively brief tenure at the U.S.T.A., Dowse has had to navigate heavy weather: some of it in the forecast; some of it completely unexpected.He was hired, after an extensive search, in late 2019 to focus on reinvigorating community tennis and participation in the sport. He was also brought in to reduce the U.S.T.A.’s operating costs and made significant cuts in several areas, including player development.But the coronavirus pandemic created major financial pressure in 2020 by threatening the association’s ability to stage the U.S. Open, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments and the U.S.T.A.’s primary source of revenue each year. Unlike Wimbledon, the U.S.T.A. had no pandemic insurance in case of cancellation. It was unclear for months whether the 2020 U.S. Open would be held, but the tournament went ahead without spectators, allowing the U.S.T.A. to preserve a significant chunk of its operating revenue through existing broadcast and sponsorship deals.In 2021, the Open allowed for full attendance during the main draw, and the tournament struck a powerful chord with New Yorkers and fans eager to return to watching tennis in person.Dowse planned to leave his base in Orlando, Fla., and return to Phoenix.“We want to thank Mike for his deep commitment to tennis and the steady hand he showed at a time of extraordinary challenge and uncertainty,” said Michael J. McNulty III, the U.S.T.A.’s chairman of the board and president, in a statement.As an outdoor sport conducive to social distancing, tennis got a big boost in participation during the pandemic. The number of people who played at least once in 2020 rose 22.4 percent from 2019 to 21.6 million players, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. But keeping those new or returning players in the game will be a major challenge: one that will be left to Dowse’s successor.The other leading candidate when Dowse was hired was Lewis Sherr, the U.S.T.A.’s chief revenue officer. Other candidates included Todd Martin, a former top player who now leads the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and Stacey Allaster, a former head of the WTA who is the U.S. Open tournament director. But with the U.S. Open expansion and construction essentially complete, the U.S.T.A.’s focus will remain on grass-roots development, which could lead the organization to hire from its board of directors. More

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    Darlene Hard, Strong-Willed Tennis Star Before Pro Era, Dies at 85

    Hard, who was outspoken and independent minded, was the top-ranked American woman from 1960 to 1963.Darlene Hard, a sturdy and strong-willed Californian with a power game who won 21 Grand Slam tennis championships as one of the last stars of the amateur era, died on Dec. 2 in Los Angeles. She was 85.Anne Marie McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I., which inducted Hard in 1973, confirmed the death but did not give a cause.Hard flourished in the late 1950s and early ’60s, when tournament tennis was the domain of amateurs. Along with her, the women’s game featured stars such as Althea Gibson and a young Billie Jean King, Maria Bueno of Brazil and Margaret Court of Australia, all future Hall of Famers.Of the Grand Slam tournaments, Hard won the United States amateur titles in 1960 and ’61 and the French title in 1960. She reached the United States finals in 1958 and 1962 and the Wimbledon finals in 1957 and 1959. She also won 13 Grand Slam championships in women’s doubles with eight different partners, and five in mixed doubles, often paired with Rod Laver.She was ranked No. 1 in the United States from 1960 through 1963, and No. 2 in the world in 1960 and ’61.Gibson played with more power than many women before or since, and Bueno was noted for her grace, but Hard’s aggressive game — big serve, strong overhead and punishing volley — made her a winner. At 5 feet 5½ inches tall and 140 pounds, her main success came on grass courts, where three of the four Grand Slam tournaments were played. (The French Open was, and still is, played on a clay surface).Hard was unusually outspoken at a time when most top players lacked the assertiveness that some display today. She once said of dominating Australian tennis officials: “They treat you not as a player but a puppet. Between tournaments, I was not asked to play in exhibitions — I was ordered to play in them. It was not ‘Miss Hard, would you mind playing?’ It was ‘Miss Hard, you will play.’”Hard belonged to four victorious teams in the Wightman Cup, the annual competition between British and American tennis players. She showed her independent mindedness then, too, earning the irritation of the American team’s captain, Margaret Osborne duPont.DuPont called Hard a “disrupting element” in an official 1962 report. “She insisted on practicing her way instead of complying with the captain’s wishes and those of the other team members,” duPont said.Hard took part in a match that made tennis history on July 6, 1957, losing in the final that made Gibson the first African American woman to win Wimbledon (by a 6-3, 6-2 score). Before the match, as customary, both players curtsied to a young Queen Elizabeth II. Afterward, the queen spoke to them for a few minutes. Then Gibson, following protocol, backed away. An overly enthused Hard, however, in an eyebrow-raising breach of etiquette, turned her back to the queen and skipped toward the locker room.Hard and Althea Gibson after the 1957 Wimbledon final, in which Gibson became the first African-American woman to win the event, defeating Hard. Keystone/Getty ImagesDarlene Ruth Hard was born on Jan. 6, 1936, in Los Angeles and grew up in nearby Montebello, Calif. Her father introduced her to football, basketball, baseball and softball. Her mother, a good amateur player, taught her tennis on public courts.After high school, Hard spent four years on the tennis circuit. Then, she later said, “I decided I didn’t want tennis for a life, so I went to college. I wanted to be in pediatrics. I guess I always wanted to be a doctor.”She went to Pomona College in California and in 1958 won the first intercollegiate tennis championship for women. She graduated in 1961.While at Pomona, Hard had a hitting session with a 13-year-old player who had demonstrated some promise: Billie Jean King.“Darlene Hard had a major influence on my career, as an athlete, teammate and friend,” King was quoted as saying on the Hall of Fame website. The two went on to play doubles together in the first Federation Cup, in 1963, the premier international women’s team tennis competition. King — for whom the cup is now named — recalled how they had overcome two match points to win the final, a highlight of both of their careers, she said.Hard returned to tennis after graduating and worked as a waitress between tournaments. In 1964, with only $400 in the bank, she turned professional and played on a South African tour with Bueno. She soon started giving tennis lessons in the Los Angeles area, leaving behind tournament play.But in 1969, the year after pros were accepted into major tournaments, she returned briefly to international competition, teaming up with Françoise Dürr to play doubles at the U.S. Open. Down 0-6, 0-2 in the final, they rallied to capture the title, 0–6, 6–3, 6–4.Hard went back to teaching tennis and owned two tennis shops. One of her tennis students, the director of student publications at the University of Southern California, offered her a job in the office in 1981. Hard remained there for nearly 40 years.Information on her survivors was not immediately available.In “We Have Come a Long Way: The Story of Women’s Tennis” (1988), which King wrote with Cynthia Starr, Hard described her dedication to the sport.“I didn’t do it for money,” she said. “I was the last of the amateurs. I won Forest Hills and I got my airfare from New York to Los Angeles. Whoopee.” She continued: “But we still went for our titles. We went for the glory. I was happy. I loved it. I loved tennis.”Frank Litsky, a longtime sportswriter for The Times, died in 2018. Daniel J. Wakin and Jordan Allen contributed reporting. More

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    How China Censored Peng Shuai

    This article is published with ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative newsroom. When inconvenient news erupts on the Chinese internet, the censors jump into action. Twenty minutes was all it took to mobilize after Peng Shuai, the tennis star and one of China’s most famous athletes, went online and accused Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier, of […] More

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    Novak Djokovic to Play in ATP Cup, Organizers Say

    The No. 1-ranked tennis player Novak Djokovic will participate in the ATP Cup in Sydney, Australia, in January, the tournament’s organizers said on Tuesday. The announcement came after weeks of speculation about whether Djokovic would travel to Australia for the Australian Open Grand Slam because of vaccine requirements.The ATP Cup announced that Djokovic would play on the Serbian team in the tournament, which will take place during the first nine days of the month. The cup is a precursor to the Australian Open, which will be held in Melbourne from Jan. 17 to Jan. 30. It is still unclear if Djokovic will be taking part in that competition, however. He could not immediately be reached for comment.Australia has placed a temporary two-week ban on international arrivals because of the Omicron variant. Before that, the government announced that some categories of visa holders would be allowed to freely enter the country if they were vaccinated. Officials placed caps on the number of unvaccinated travelers who could enter the country per week, and they were required to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival.In October, Djokovic, the reigning champion and a nine-time winner of the Australian Open, told a Serbian news outlet that he might not attend the Australian Open because he would not reveal his vaccination status.Daniel Andrews, the premier of Victoria, the state of which Melbourne is the capital, has said that Victoria would not permit entry to unvaccinated players.Last week, Mr. Djokovic’s father, Srdjan Djokovic, said that his son was unlikely to participate in the tournament “under these blackmails and conditions.”Novak Djokovic’s remark in October set off rounds of contradictory statements between Australian government ministers and tournament organizers about entry requirements for international visitors.Alex Hawk, the immigration minister, said that unvaccinated players would not be able to enter Australia.The Women’s Tennis Association told its players in a leaked email that unvaccinated players would be allowed to enter the country, though they would have to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival.Prime Minister Scott Morrison said something similar: Unvaccinated players would be able to enter, but would need to comply with quarantine requirements for the state in which they arrived. More

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    Putting Principles Before Profits, Steve Simon Takes a Stand

    The WTA chief has spent years in tennis working quietly to put players first. Suspending tournaments in China over the treatment of star Peng Shuai has made him the most talked-about leader in sports.Guadalajara, Mexico, gave a party for women’s tennis last month, and when it ended, with Garbiñe Muguruza winning the WTA Finals, the season’s last tournament, confetti fell through the air and a mariachi band turned the Akron Tennis Stadium into a fiesta.In the middle of it, Steve Simon, the bespectacled chairman and chief executive of the WTA Tour, stood quietly and unsmiling in a blue business suit with his hands clasped. He shared the occasional quiet word with Chris Evert and Billie Jean King, or one of the local officials he had helped persuade into holding the event on short notice, after the regular host, Shenzhen, China, pulled out because of the pandemic.Simon had plenty else on his mind. As the tournament and closing celebration unfolded, a geopolitical crisis with women’s tennis at its center had occupied much of his time and he was leading the tour down an uncertain path.On Nov. 2, the Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai accused Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier of China, of sexually assaulting her in social media posts that were quickly deleted.The Chinese government removed all mentions of Peng’s accusation, and coverage of Peng from news media outside China has been censored. She largely disappeared from public life, and Simon has been unable to communicate with her despite repeated attempts.On Nov. 13, Simon went public with his frustration, demanding that he and the WTA be able to speak with Peng independently and that Chinese officials conduct a transparent investigation into her allegations. If they did not comply, Simon said, the WTA would consider removing its nine tournaments from China, including the Tour Finals, moves that could cost women’s tennis tens and perhaps hundreds, of millions of dollars over the next decade.On Wednesday, Simon followed through on his threat, announcing that after weeks of failed attempts to communicate with Peng, and no sign of an investigation or evidence that Peng can speak freely, the WTA was immediately suspending all of its tournaments in China. Simon’s stridency, in contrast to other international sports leagues and organizations that do business in China, has turned Simon, a mild-mannered former tournament director who prefers to operate in the background and leave the spotlight to his star players, into the most talked-about leader in sports.“This is not where I wanted to end up,” Simon said in an interview Wednesday night, speaking about the WTA Tour, but also, in a sense, about himself.Peng Shuai competing at the Australian Open in 2017.Clive Brunskill/Getty Images“I don’t want this to be about me,” he added. “Nothing prepared me for it, other than just trying to do what is right and communicating that with the players.”Simon’s refusal to accept China’s authoritarian stance on human rights once it directly affected one of his players stands in stark contrast to several high-profile leaders in sports who have repeatedly bent to the desires of the Chinese, including Adam Silver, the commissioner of the N.B.A., and Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee.Simon has been concerned about Peng’s physical safety but also believed, as did the members of his player council and others he communicates with regularly in a player chat group, that the silencing of Peng and her sexual assault allegation amounted to a direct attack on the principle of equality upon which the WTA was founded.“It’s now December and we’ve not seen any meaningful progress,” he said Wednesday night.Simon, a 66-year-old Southern California native, played tennis at Long Beach State University and mixed doubles at Wimbledon in 1981 alongside Lea Antonoplis. He has spent his adult life in tennis coaching, running the tennis program for Adidas, and organizing and eventually directing the BNP Paribas Open, a joint men’s and women’s event in Indian Wells, Calif., known as the fifth Grand Slam.All along, Simon was quietly gaining authority within tennis circles, even if few of the players knew him particularly well. He began serving on the board of the WTA in 2004.In 2009, he worked to get Stacey Allaster, then the president of the WTA, appointed as the next chief executive. Allaster said during a rough moment for her candidacy, she privately asked Simon if he might be a better fit to lead the organization.“Without a blink he turned to me and said, ‘No, we’re going to stay the course,’” Allaster said.Six years later, after Allaster decided to step down, the WTA board unanimously selected Simon to succeed her. He has since cultivated the support of the sport’s biggest stars of the present and past, including Serena Williams and King, the founder of the WTA, while maintaining his decades-long relationships with the tournament directors who were his initial base of support.“He’s a rarity in sports,” said John Tobias, a prominent tennis agent who represents Sloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open women’s singles champion. “An executive who is always trying to put the focus on the tour and the players.”Before this month, Simon was best known for the work he performed behind the scenes, along with the former pro Charlie Pasarell and others, to bring Venus and Serena Williams back to Indian Wells after a 14-year absence. Serena Williams was ceaselessly booed by fans after her sister withdrew from a semifinal match between them. Williams believed that race had played a role in how fans treated her. She said at the time that Simon spent a long time listening to what she had to say on the matter and that played a major role in her decision to return.Understand the Disappearance of Peng ShuaiCard 1 of 5Where is Peng Shuai? More