Martina Navratilova, the legend of women’s tennis, believes that Steve Simon has little chance of staying at the top of the WTA after the Champions Tour was organized in Cancun and that it is time for a new woman to take over the WTA. women’s track, Reuters reports.

Martina Navratilova wants a woman to lead the WTA

Simon has been at the helm of the WTA for eight years as president and chief executive, but has recently come under fire from players, not least for the decision to hold the open-air Champions Tour in the Mexican resort of Cancun.

“Maybe it’s time for a new leadership. For me personally, being a players association, I’ve been involved for so long since the beginning, but I’ve only had two women at the helm. I think the time has come, hopefully when we have a new leader, it will be a woman.

There are many of them who are qualified for the job. It’s going to be hard for Steve to continue because things are in a different direction now,” Martina Navratilova, 18-time Grand Slam champion, for Amazon Prime.

The head of the WTA was criticized for the conditions in which the players experienced in Cancun on the occasion of the Tournament of Champions

Less than two months ago, Cancun was named the venue for the $9 million WTA Finals, the Tournament of Champions that brings together the top eight singles players and the top eight doubles players.

Belarusian world number one Arina Sabalenko has criticized the WTA over the conditions in which the field was presented after the opening day of the group matches and said she felt “disrespected” by the standard of organization of the prestigious event.

The tournament was supposed to end on November 5, but due to rain and strong wind, the semi-final between Iga Svyatek and Sabalenko ended only on that day, and the final was scheduled for Monday.

“The players adapted, they had to. But to come to Cancun in the rainy season? You can’t hope for a rain-free WTA main event.

You have to admit your bad decisions and make some choices after that… There were a number of bad decisions. After all, Steve Simon was the boss for eight years, and here we are,” Navratilova said.

In a letter to players released to the media last week, Simon said the late selection of Cancun to host the major was “based on a number of complex factors.”

He said the WTA took responsibility for the poor conditions and announced changes to the organization of the tournament after a number of other complaints from top players about how they were treated.

In a statement to Reuters on Friday, the WTA said it would continue to listen to the players about the direction the Tournament of Champions should take, Agerpres reported.

American Steve Simon was appointed president and chief executive of the WTA in October 2015 following the resignation of Canadian Stacey Allaster at the end of September.

• In the grand final of the Tournament of Champions, Iga (second seed) will meet American Jessica Pegula (fifth favorite). The match will take place on Tuesday, November 7 at 00:30 (Romanian time) and can be watched live on Digisport 2.

• If she wins the Grand Final of the Tournament of Champions, Iga Sviatek will return to the top spot in the WTA ranking. He will score 9,295 points, while Sabalenko will remain with the current 9,050.

The 2023 Tournament of Champions takes place from October 29 to November 5 on hard court in Cancun, Mexico. Its total prize pool is $9,000,000, starting with the top eight players of the season, and the reigning champion is Caroline Garcia (she did not qualify for this year’s edition).

Who is Martina Navratilova?

At the age of 67, the Czech-American has a total of 59 Grand Slam titles won in her fantastic career in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Navratilova is rightfully considered one of the greatest players in the history of tennis.

Martina became a US citizen in 1981. Previously, Navratilova struggled with breast cancer, which was diagnosed in 2010.

During her career, Martina Navratilova won 18 Grand Slam singles titles out of 167 tournaments she won.

She won 1442 games and lost 291 times. He collected $21,626,089 in tennis prize money alone, and first climbed to world number one on July 10, 1978.