THE last-minute scramble to find a host for the year-ending WTA finals was a disaster, according to several players.

Former World No.3 Elina Svitolina was just one not happy with the WTA’s decision to host the WTA Finals in Cancun, Mexico.

Several players labelled the court conditions ‘unsafe’ as many others criticised the training facilities.

And the weather also had a major negative impact on the event. Cancun is always vulnerable to wind and rain in October/November. So why the WTA go there?

In all honesty, the cash-strapped WTA had little choice – there was, at such a late stage, no other option.

“I saw the court was not ready, I don’t know why the WTA wanted to host it in Cancun,” Svitolina said last week.

“It’s a shame for the best eight players in the world to be playing in these conditions, it’s terrible for our sport to be honest.”

WTA CEO Steve Simon has since apologised in an open letter to platers.

But the damage has already been done and there is zero chance Cancun will be asked to host the event again.

But it didn’t end there…

Polish channel Canal+ Sport was pretty brutal in its assessment of the conditions.

And they copped some feedback from organisers, but stuck by their earlier critical remarks.

“It’s our job to show you what’s on the ground, the station said.

“What’s more – some people from the WTA are already starting to snoop around, saying that they don’t like it, that we’re telling the truth. Well, that’s too bad.

“This is our role here. That’s why we came here, not for a holiday.”

As for Simon? Martina Navratilova has already called for him to go.

SAUDI sports washing continues at a pace, with tennis now firmly in the middle eastern regimes sights.

And tennis authorities are falling over themselves to cash in.

The ATP seems happy to hand a Masters 1000 tournament to the desert kingdom, the second highest-level tournament category in tennis after the Grand Slams.

And the cash-strapped WTA is on its knees begging for support with the WTA Finals being offered up after a disastrous Cancun event.

So far, the Saudis have secured hosting rights to stage the Next Gen ATP Finals and talks to buy either Miami or Madrid are progressing well.

Such an event could of course have a major impact on the lead-up to the Australian Open, as GST’s Bill Scott confirmed on Wednesday.

Outlined to start in January 2025, the Saudi tournament would finish just days before the start of the Australian Open, threatening a number of existing lead-in events such as the United Cup mixed national teams event.

The United Cup will be held next year in Perth and Sydney in January while other players warm up at the Adelaide International or in Auckland.

And how much are the Saudis paying? According to reports, around half a billion dollars.

MEANWHILE, in New York the owner of the Mets baseball team, hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen, has unveiled a $8 billion plan for a 50-acre casino, hotel and music complex in Queens, next to the US Tennis Center.

‘Metropolitan Park’ would encompass 20 acres of green space with Cohen claiming it would generate $130 billion in economic impact over the next three decades in an area.

“It’s time the world’s greatest city got the sports and entertainment park it deserves,” Cohen said.

Cohen’s big plan though might see the light of day – he has still to persuade Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State legislature – both of which are yet to be convinced.

EMMA Raducanu turns 21 tomorrow and will never be in the world’s top 10 again.

A brave prediction or solid forecast?

Raducanu is still injured – possibly the longest sick note in tennis history – and is now ranked at 285.

But get this, she still pulls £10 million in off-court deals from companies like Nike, Porsche, Vodafone and Evian.

Will she name her comeback in 2024? Many had hoped so, but in a recent interview for Amazon Prime, Raducanu told Laura Robson her recovery was still ongoing.

ONE player who is making a comeback is Former No.1 Naomi Osaka.

She will will kick off her comeback at the Brisbane International in January.

Two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka has also been confirmed for Brisbane.

But Aussie Nick Kyrgios has told Brisbane officials it will be a “wait and see” approach as he returns from injury.
Kyrgios, 28, has played only one match this year after a stunning 2022 that saw him reach the Wimbledon final and a US Open quarter-final.

COACHING merry-go-round… Italian Matteo Berrettini is rumoured to have teamed up Thomas Enqvist as his new coach for 2024.

Berrettini is still recovering from an injury sustained at the US Open ion September.

And Andy Murray has split with long-time coach Ivan Lendl for a third time.

“Ivan has been by my side at the biggest moments in my career and I can’t thank him enough for all that he’s helped me achieve,” Murray said.

CONGRATS to Belinda Bencic, who announced on social media during the week she is to become a mom.

“Expecting our little miracle soon!” she wrote in Instagram in a joint post with boyfriend Martin Hromkovic. “We can’t wait to meet you.”

Bencic gave no hint of a due date, she last played in September in San Diego.

AND staying with the tennis relationship theme, Paula Badosa admitted last week criticism over her dating Stefanos Tsitsipas has hurt.

For some reason their relationship has attracted negative headlines, with some saying his poor court performances are because has focused too much on his new girlfriend.

“That has hurt me a lot because with the whole issue of the injury, I have actually been able to dedicate myself quite a bit to helping him,” she told El Pais.

“We both love tennis and he is also a super-working person, we are very similar in the goals we set for ourselves.

“We talk a lot about tennis and we help each other a lot.

“I can understand that we are public figures and that we are exposed, but in the end, we are two 25-year-olds and all this is delicate, because it is an innocent relationship.”

AND finally….

Seeing double? No, just another Alcaraz coming through the system.

Carlos Alcaraz’s younger brother Jaime recently finished as the runner-up at the Rafa Nadal Tour Masters event in Mallorca.

Jaime Alcaraz, 12, had a great campaign at the under-12 tournament, eventually falling 6-0, 6-1 to Russian Stefan Shangichev.

The WTA is almost broke, those were the comments from a number of tennis legends last week as talk again centred on a WTA-ATP merger.

But the ATP is in no hurry to take on a dysfunctional women’s tournament organisation that could go bankrupt by 2026.

Yuri Polsky, Kazakhstan Tennis Federation’s Vice President, was the latest to voice concerns last week, predicting the WTA is struggling to survive.

“They are in a very bad place and could even go bankrupt in 2026 or 2027 if their financial situation doesn’t change,” Polsky said.

“For the WTA it is a matter of survival, for the ATP-a matter of reputation.

“The ATP leadership doesn’t want them to collapse because the optics would be bad. The ATP is in good financial shape, the tour has reserves, the players have retirement funds.”

Polsky is right. A WTA collapse would send shockwaves through tennis – and it would have an effect on the ATP’s ability to attract new sponsorship.

The rumours of financial strife at the WTA have been around for a while, and it’s probably part of the reason why may stars have been calling for a merger.

Roger Federer started his concerns back in 2020 when he ge write on Twitter: “Just wondering…..am I the only one thinking that now is the time for men’s and women’s tennis to be united and come together as one?”

But the ATP is in no rush and why should it be? The WTA’s woes are of their own making and the ATP will not want to take on any debts incurred by the women’s game.

Commercially, the ATP has always been the strong of the two and as much as some may argue against, men’s tennis is more sellable than the women’s game.

Can the WTA survive? Maybe, maybe not.

Will women’s tennis survive? Of course it will, but while gender equality is as admirable desire, the commercial realities and the ROI (return on investment) for potential sponsors and/or business partners in professional sport is a very different proposition.

AND if it couldn’t get worse this week for the WTA … CEO Steve Simon was forced to write to players at the WTA finals in Mexico to apologise for what he described as “organisational failures”.

“First and foremost, it is clear that you are not happy with the decision to be here in Cancun. I understand that and you have been heard,” Simon write in a letter that was leaked to media.

“As I have reflected to you, this is not where we expected to be and the decision for this location was based upon a number of complicated factors. It is not a perfect event, we understand the conditions are a challenge and the WTA will of course accept responsibility for that.”

Players only discovered in September that the finals would be held in Cancun and the finals started just two days after the Billie Jean King Cup in Seville.

WHAT a joke … and well done Casper Ruud for calling out the farcical middle of the night matches players have had to ensure in Paris.

On Tuesday the Jannik Sinner v Mackenzie McDonald clash ended at almost 3am.

Sinner then withdrew before from his third round match on Thursday blaming “fatigue”.

Aussie Darren Cahill, who coaches Sinner, posted on Instagram that he was happy with the victory but criticised “zero care for players’ welfare with Paris scheduling”.

And Ruud waded in: “Bravo atptour way to help one of the best players in the world recover and be as ready as possible when he finished his previous match at 2:37 am this morning 14.5 hours to recover, what a joke.”

Swiss Stan Wawrinka posted: “It’s crazy‍️ tournament doesn’t care and ATP just follow what the tournament will want‍️! Always the same story.”

Ruud also expressed sympathy for American Jenson Brooksby after the latter was banned for 18 months for failing to report his whereabouts at a drugs test.

Ruud said that he thought the punishment of 18 months was too harsh for such a mistake, and that it would cost Brooksby a lot of time and money to get back to his level.

He then went on to describe his own strategy and the legitimate problems many players face when told a test is due.

“Maybe it sounds silly but let’s say I wake up during the night at like 6:15,” The Norwegian said.

“I wake up by myself because I have to pee so much. You’re kind of thinking oh maybe they [doping control] come up at 7 so maybe I shouldn’t go because I want to save it. If I go and empty my bladder at 6:15 maybe I won’t get to pee until like 10. You cannot just pee whenever you want.”

Ruud told Eurosport he felt like he lived “under watch or like in prison” because he had to think twice before doing something as natural as peeing.

IS Andy Murray the next great of the game to call it a day and retire?

Murray admitted on Monday he was not enjoying his tennis after suffering another defeat at the hands of Australian Alex de Minaur in the first round of the Paris Masters.

Murray crashed out 7-6 (5) 4-6 7-5 to the Australian as tempers boiled over, the Brit knocking the drinks bottles and towel off his bench before smashing his racket off the floor.

“I’m not really enjoying it just now in terms of how I feel on the court and how I’m playing,” Murray, now 36, said.

“The last five, six months haven’t been that enjoyable, so I need to try and find some of that enjoyment back because playing a match like that there’s not much positivity there.

“When I play a good point, I’m not really getting behind myself and then in the important moments, that will to win and fight that has always been quite a big, big part of my game.”

He is due to represent GB at the Davis Cup finals later this month, but will we see him at Wimbledon again?

IT’S not just tennis in Paris – soccer’s Ballon D’Or ceremony to announce the world’s best player for 2023, was taking place.

And Novak Djokovic was one of the guests at the event, catching up with Argentina star Lionel Messi.

The Serb has kept himself busy in the French capital, a few days earlier he attended the rugby World Cup final between New Zealand and South Africa.

GERMAN star Alexander Zverev has vowed to fight allegations after he was given a €450,000 ($476,000) fine by a Berlin court for allegedly assaulting a woman in May 2020.

Zverev’s lawyers rejected the accusations in a statement, naming the woman as Brenda Patea, the tennis player’s ex-girlfriend.

The allegations made by Patea “which alone form the basis for the penalty order, have already been refuted by a forensic medical report”, the lawyers said.

In January the ATP closed an investigation into allegations of domestic abuse against Zverev.

Zverev has been “accused of physically abusing a woman and damaging her health during an argument” in the German capital three years ago.

DANIIL Medvedev’s non-love affair with Parisian fans continued during the week as the crowd at the Paris Masters kept whistling at him, with the Russian threatening to stop play.

When opponent Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov broke to 5-5 in first set, Medvedev threw away his racket which brought whistles from the crowd.

The Russian, who had previously said he wanted to win over the crowd, lost his temper and stopped play.

“I’m not going to play when they whistle,” Medvedev shouted at the umpire who replied by telling the Russian: “The more you stop, the more it annoys them. The more they whistle.”

Medvedev refused to continue.

“They’re stupid! If they don’t whistle, I’ll play!”, Medvedev said before telling the crowd: “I play guys, but shut your mouths, okay!”

Third seed Medvedev lost to 17th-ranked Dimitrov, 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/2).

“When I throw my racket, I’m allowed to get whistled at, it’s a bad reaction,” he told the post match press conference.

“On the other hand, if I serve, and they whistle and applaud at the same time, it’s a bit weird”.

“That’s the public at Bercy, everyone knows it, not everyone likes playing here. I played much better at Bercy when there was nobody there,” he said, mentioning his victory in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“For me, it doesn’t connect.”

WHAT a Halloween horror! We can’t still work what Caroline Wozniaki and husband David Lee were doing dressing up for Halloween as … The Flintstones??

AND FINALLY…

Martina Navratilova reacted to the news on social media and expressed her disapproval of Iran’s appointment as the chair, describing it as a “joke.”

“And this is just a joke…,” Martina Navratilova posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Jessica Pegula completed a 180-degree turnaround at the WTA Finals as she put an American into the semi-finals for the first time since 2018.

The No. 5 who lost all three of her group matches at the year-ender a year ago in Texas, reversed her losing trend in style by winning her third match and booking a final four spot in Cancun, Mexico.

She defeated Greek Maria Sakkari 6-3, 6-2 to conclude group play at the eight-woman event.

The last American to get this far at the season wrapup was Sloane Stephens five years ago in Singapore.

 Pegula, 29, whose billionaire family owns the Buffalo Bills NFL football side,  is something of a late bloomer, reaching the Top 100 only at age 25.

“This year, I’ve had, I think, more confidence in those (big) matches. 

“That’s why I’ve had some better top wins this year as far as beating No.1 players in the world in big moments, like here (Aryna Sabalenka) and in Montreal (which she won in August).”

Pegula leads the WTA in hard-court match wins with 44.

“Every match, you’re always gonna feel different. But I think the more you put yourself in those situations, the better you feel when they come up again,” she said.

“It doesn’t feel like you have to panic as much. Sometimes you don’t always feel like that. Sometimes you might freak out. 

“But the point is, I’ve been through those moments before.”