Withholding travel expenses due to weight made me think she was so large she’d need two seats on the plane. As that’s not the case, I think travel expenses is an odd thing to withhold.
The USTA has its head up its ass. Results speak louder than words and she’s the freaking number one junior tennis player. If anything she should pack on a few pounds as a handicap to give other players a choice. And the USTA has given themselves a PR black eye by being so upfront about it. They need to rewatch Knocked Up and practice Wiig’s “We’re not telling you to lose weight but if you could come back 20 pounds lighter, that would be great” speech.
The real issue is probably tennis’ “image” and the perceived marketability of "hot"stars.
Well, she lost in the quarterfinals in New York. Is that the kind of thing you mean? This overstates her success more than a little. In January she won a big juniors championship in singles and she’s won three in doubles. She’s been #1 for about five months. All of that bodes very well for her future career, but it’s not historic or a guarantee of what she’ll do as a professional, so I don’t think it comes anywhere near the level where it makes sense to say “she’s winning and they should leave her alone.” If she doesn’t succeed as a professional (something the USTA has a major stake in), nobody’s going to care that she was a very good player in the juniors.
Losing weight won’t guarantee her success either. She’s #1, so the USTA and all of its apologists should STFU!
It’s a joke that if quality tennis matches are what they want, she should be heavier so as to have more of a challenge on the court. She got to number one so she’s clearly not doing too badly.
Nobody said it would. But being in better shape makes it easier for an athlete to succeed and all things considered it’s better if she gets in the best shape earlierin ther career. I don’t think there’s anything weird or complicated about those ideas.
Where did they say anything about quality matches? They talked about her health and or fitness and her long-term development as a tennis player. And as good as she is, she lost in the third round at the French Open and Wimbledon and the quarterfinals in New York. So there’s some room for improvement, right? And her fitness might be an area where she could improve?
I have a hard time believing you can get to being the number one junior tennis player without becoming fit. It seems like it’s going to be an intrinsic part of the journey. If they’re concerned about stress on her joints or something, that’s something to be handled between her and whatever medical team works with the players and USTA. Withholding travel expenses reimbursments to force her to comply says to me they didn’t start out with the concern for her physical wellbeing line.
This is a relative thing, obviously. Nobody’s arguing she spends all her time sitting on the couch eating Cheetos and then wheezes her way through matches. She’s playing very well and they’re saying she should get in better shape. Whether that’s just because of her weight or an endurance issue or concern about joints (as you mentioned hypothetically) or something else, I have no idea. If they haven’t done enough to help her work on her fitness and slammed her with this out of nowhere, that’s unfair and unreasonable. If this has been an ongoing concern and they don’t feel she’s taken it seriously, their viewpoint may have some merit even if the way it’s become public has been tactless and unfortunate. But I’m not comfortable with the assertion that the USTA has no say, because they do, or that they should shut up because she’s the best junior player right now and that means everything is fine, because that’s a results-oriented argument that is questionable for professionals and really doesn’t work for someone who hasn’t turned professional yet.
Presumably she entered the development program voluntarily, because she wanted its benefits (free money, opportunities to compete, plus a long-standing program of skills and fitness building). I have no issue with the organization requiring her to live up to some defined responsibilities in exchange for what she’s getting. I’m sure they require her to show up for practice every day in exchange for free travel, too, and I doubt many would see that as unreasonable. When two people are working toward a common goal, it’s usually not the case that only one of them carries the lion’s share of responsibility while the other reaps all the benefits.
And given that it is a development program, I can’t fault the organization for taking the long view – I’d argue that it’s their responsibility to do so. I wouldn’t think much of a development program where their protégé washes out by the age of 20. I don’t follow tennis but I’d guess that professionals compete at a much higher level than amateurs.
What complete bullshit.
And yeah, I’ma pull the gender card – I doubt they’d pull this stunt on a male player.
It’s not unusual for male athletes in any sport to be told to get in better shape. I don’t know about juniors, but I can certainly think of male professionals who improved after doing that. I’d actually find it very surprising if the male players were never told to get in better shape. It’s not hard to see why this has become a big issue because it touches on a bunch of sensitive topics (weight, body image, youth, gender, race), but at this point we’re lacking evidence that the side issues played a role here.
If you’ve managed to keep a spare tire despite working out and training enough to be be THAT good I too would be worrying that she is pretty darn close to chunking out as she gets older. As a rule as people get older keeping the weight off gets harder not easier and she’s already chunky at 16 for pete’s sake.
She wants to keep the spare tire? Quit the program that’s giving her all the freebies.
Its their money and her choice.
I don’t. If she has a advantage over her competition that is not fitness based (strength, height, serve, etc.) she can do well even if her fitness is not that good.
There are certainly some athletes who can perform at high levels while relatively out of shape. As a Redskins fan, I remember the debacle over Albert Haynesworth being unable to pass a pretty basic fitness test. The thing with him, though, was that while he could be dominant, he still had no endurance and you’d see him “sit out” at least as many plays as he really tried on and fake injuries and all. So, really, he wasn’t actually performing at a high level if he couldn’t do it consistently.
Tennis is a different kind of sport, one has to have agility and endurance to perform at a high level. Perhaps if she lost a few pounds she might be even a little better, but it’s definitely short-sighted to say she’s out of shape and needs to lose weight. If anything, her instructors should be trying to pinpoint her weaknesses and figure out what they can do to improve it. It may very well be that she would benefit from it, but if she’s ranked number one in the country, then she’s still a world-class athlete.
And even looking at the pictures in the article, she’s certainly heavier than most tennis players are at her age and skill level, but… so what? Serena Williams is quite a bit thicker than most other women on the professional circuit and she was world number one for quite a while. Admittedly, I don’t think she ever had a gut and this girl has a bit of one, but I also imagine just properly training up for the stiffer competition will probably take care of it all by itself.
So, I think the USTA just needs to suck it up. It’s just sending the wrong message to the public and it’s not even handling the situation here correctly, which may very well just be a small change in her diet or something. Really seems like making a mountain out of a molehill to me.
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How is the USTA funded?
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Why is it involved in the development of younger players? Are we in a team tennis competition with the rest of the world? Is there some sort of payoff for the USTA in the end?
I don’t think I’m getting the whole relationship.
I don’t see how it’s shortsighted. For some players, committing to fitness and endurance makes a huge difference, and getting serious about those things is sometimes the last thing a player has to do before realizing his or her potential. (Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray come to mind.) They also said “improve fitness,” not “lose weight.” They’re not unrelated but they’re also not the same thing.
Well, yes. This is why I keep saying I doubt this is a new issue. Maybe it is and the USTA are just jerks, but I can’t help wondering if this has been an ongoing problem and this was an option of last resort. Which still wouldn’t mean they handled it right, but it’s one thing if this came out of nowhere and another if they’ve been trying to get her to get serious about this.
Serena could win big tournaments while out of shape, that’s true. Then again she’s much better when she’s really fit and she’s also lost some matches she shouldn’t have over the years when she wasn’t in peak condition. She’s also arguably the best women’s tennis player ever. And while people talk about her fitness sometimes, did you get a look at her arms when she was holding the U.S. Open trophy yesterday? Holy crap.
I imagine it’s a mix of dues from members, corporate sponsorship, and taxpayer money.
Because that’s part of it’s job? Here’s their “about” page.
There are international competitions, yes. And maybe more to the point, developing a world-class tennis player is difficult and not everybody knows what to do with the best talent. So you try to bring together the best coaches and the best talent and get better results with young players.
And tourmanent revenue. The USTA also runs a little event called the U.S. Open.
She is the currently the ITF #1 ranked Junior. However, if you look at her results, she hasn’t been nearly as successful since April as she was up to April.
Also note that while she is the #1 ranked Junior, she only has a .642 winning percentage in 14 professional matches to date. I think the USTA was trying to send the message that she needs to do what she can to improve those numbers if she wants to have a chance at a long career. She might be a World Junior #1 today, but there are a lot of World Junior #1’s in the pro ranks.
All that being said, the USTA did a horrible job of delivering the message.
All of that may be true, but if she had the same stats with a lower BMI, I seriously doubt she’d be getting a Very Special Lesson about the unsustainability of her winning streak.
But I do agree with the last part of your post. Even if you do think the girl needs to lose some lbs, there must have been a better way for the USTA to handle this situation that wouldn’t have garnered such negative press.