Martina Navratilova Criticises Indian Wells CEO

 

Martina Navratilova expects a number of female tennis players to boycott Indian Wells next year if Raymond Moore does not resign from his position as tournament director. Moore controversially described the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) as a lucky organisation that rides on the coat-tails of the men's game, following Sunday's women's final between Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka at the California tournament.

Moore inflammatory comments drew criticism from a number of players, including Williams, who described the remarks as very much mistaken and very, very inaccurate. Moore has since issued an apology but Navratilova says she would not be surprised if players chose to boycott the tournament next year in protest. She said “It was really disheartening to see Ray Moore offer the extremely prejudiced and very old-fashioned statements regarding women tennis players," said the 18-time Grand Slam singles champion. We have made it this far on our own, without help from male players, and will continue to do so in the future. It would be hard to imagine any women to want to go and play at Indian Wells if Moore stays as the tournament director”.

Navratilova says she was also disappointed with current world No 1 Novak Djokovic, who appeared to agree with Moore in relation to equal pay in tennis. She added “Obviously it's a very delicate situation. Women deserve respect and admiration for what they are doing. You know, equal prize money was the main subject of the tennis world in the last seven, eight years. I have been through that process as well so I understand how much power and energy WTA and all the advocates for equal prize money have invested in order to reach that. I applaud them for that, I honestly do. They fought for what they deserve and they got it. On the other hand I think that our men's tennis world, ATP world, should fight for more because the stats are showing that we have much more spectators on the men's tennis matches. Novak Djokovic, as much as I love him, clearly doesn't understand why, when women and men play in combined tournaments, they must be paid equally, I thought we settled that issue years ago”