It’s nuts that they just disappeared her. Will be interesting to see if the WTA and ATP pull their events from China or will money talk.
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She’s probably holed up in some cell or safe house now until she decides to retract her version of events.
He looks like a baddie in a Bond film.
The puffiness around the eyes a sure sign of a high salt diet
Ah looks like it was all a big misunderstanding…
can you confirm if this relates to lawn tennis
Copy and paste please
Bullying claims amid Munster neglect — Tennis Ireland undermined by its own top-down flaws
Paul Rowan
Wednesday December 22 2021, 12.01am GMT, The Times
There could be any number of amusing puns applied to the civil war in Irish tennis at the moment, with Munster hemmed in by the three other provinces in the ongoing power struggle. With no Irish player in the top 500 of world tennis, it is hardly surprising that the turmoil has been largely ignored in the club houses around the country, which are experiencing a sharp spike in membership because tennis is a non-contact sport. Except when it comes to the Tennis Ireland boardroom, that is.
Shane Cooke, its president, and two directors who also hail from Munster have been suspended. One Cork-based director, Clifford Carroll, the longest-serving board member on Tennis Ireland and a former president, said he was zapped off a board meeting on Zoom as soon as the matter was voted on.
The remaining directors said that boardroom confidentiality was breached in a series of allegations made by the Munster Council in a letter to clubs. Among the claims contained in the letter was that board meetings were being convened to which only a select number of directors are invited; that allegations of bullying brought to the board’s attention were not being investigated; that Richard Fahey, the chief executive, was being undermined in his work, and that his contract had been terminated without any written or recognised process after he had made a protected disclosure about an alleged illegal or improper payment to a coach.
David O’Beirne, the Tennis Ireland chairman, said on Friday: “A majority of the directors of Tennis Ireland do not accept those complaints and regret that matters which are the subject of Board confidentiality have been brought into the public domain.”
Fahey is due to leave Tennis Ireland next month, with the board deciding not to renew his five-year contract. Reports that he was set to return to a high level job with his previous employers, the Football Association of Ireland, appear wide of the mark.
While highly regarded in many Irish sporting circles and at Sport Ireland, it was Fahey’s appointment that sparked a chain of events which help explain the current upheaval. Another candidate, Dave Miley, took a successful legal action arguing that he had been illegally discriminated against on age grounds and had been better qualified for the role after working for the International Tennis Federation at a senior level for many years.
Tennis Ireland was fined €6,500 by a labour court and while the board objected fiercely to the penalty, it was a trigger for some elements in the powerful Leinster tennis branch to flex its muscles at national board level. The changes have been incremental, but radical nonetheless and clearly some noses are out of joint. More “portfolio” directors – figures from outside the sport with specialist knowledge in areas such as finance and governance – have been brought on the board, diluting the power of the provinces, but probably making it more fit for purpose as a modern sporting body.
The Munster cohort allegation that “all future government and Sport Ireland funding of Tennis Ireland [is] at very serious risk” is one which is strongly contested by the remaining members of the board, which are confident about a board review expected shortly from the Institute of Public Administration.
“It had been clear to a majority of the Directors of Tennis Ireland for quite some time that significant reform of Tennis Ireland’s structures, including the board, was required to make Tennis Ireland fit for purpose in 2022 and beyond,” O’Beirne said in a statement. “When finalised, the board is committed to undertake and implement the IPA recommendations. The IPA’s expert and impartial assistance has been very much welcomed and Sport Ireland is being kept fully up to date on this process.”
While the club game is booming, those impatient to see Ireland produce top-class tennis players alongside other small nations such as Lithuania, are probably still going to have to wait for a number of years, but O’Beirne insists that Munster’s concerns are baseless and the right path is being pursued.
“There is, among the Tennis Ireland Board a common purpose, shared vision and determination to proceed with reform of the current governance structures and arrangements and to adopt and refresh governance policies, procedures and practices to comply with the Sport Ireland Code of Governance for sport and to deliver on Tennis Ireland’s role as the national governing body for the sport of tennis.”
Miley, is now Kazakhstan’s Director of Tennis, and is not thought to be in the running as a replacement for Fahey.
World number one Novak Djokovic will defend his Australian Open title later this month after receiving a medical exemption from having a Covid-19 vaccination.
All players and staff at the tournament must be vaccinated or have an exemption granted by an expert independent panel.
Djokovic, a nine-time Australian Open winner, has not spoken publicly about his vaccination status.
The tournament begins in Melbourne on 17 January.
“I’ve spent fantastic quality time with my loved ones over the break and today I’m heading down under with an exemption permission,” the 34-year-old said on Instagram on Tuesday. "Let’s go 2022.
“I am ready to live and breathe tennis in the next few weeks of competition.”
The news was confirmed by tournament organisers Tennis Australia, who said: “Novak Djokovic will compete at the Australian Open and is on his way to Australia.”
Earlier this week, Australian Open chief Craig Tiley said that some unvaccinated players had been granted exemptions to play in the year’s first Grand Slam.
Applications for medical exemptions are being assessed anonymously by two separate panels, with inflammatory cardiac illness or another acute condition listed as valid reasons.
But it is also possible Djokovic has recently tested positive for the virus, which would allow him to defer taking the vaccine.
Tennis Australia said Djokovic was granted an exemption after a “a rigorous review process involving two separate independent panels of medical experts”.
“Fair and independent protocols were established for assessing medical exemption applications that will enable us to ensure Australian Open 2022 is safe and enjoyable for everyone,” said Tiley in a statement on Tuesday.
“Central to this process was that the decisions were made by independent medical experts and that every applicant was given due consideration.”
Djokovic had pulled out of the Serbia team for the ATP Cup in Sydney, which had raised doubts over his participation at Melbourne Park.
BBC tennis commentator Andrew Castle said, while he was “not surprised” by the reaction to the exemption, the decision was “not unfair”.
“We don’t know what Djokovic’s medical exemption is and we’ll never know because it’s private,” Castle told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"But he must have one. We knew this would happen when exemptions were announced. I’m not surprised [by the reaction] but what I will say is, it’s not unfair because he satisfied two independent panels.
"Is he giving the world of tennis the correct lead? It’s arguable. It doesn’t look like he’s broken any rules, he’s satisfied the independent panels so we’re once again left arguing over another Covid-related matter.
“I can understand the Australian public being furious. They’ve been to hell and back and if the crowd boo him - which I think they will - he will put it aside and become the favourite to win. No-one is arguing about his tennis, the concern here is leadership and the example he is setting, but it’s not mandatory to have the vaccination.”
Djokovic has won the past three Australian Opens and is in a three-way tie on 20 majors with Roger Federer, who misses the tournament through injury, and Rafael Nadal in the all-time list.
“He has a chance to break this record,” added Castle. "The tournament would be worse off without him from a tennis point of view, of course. But he’s never been quite as loved as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal and this won’t do anything to endear him to this part of the world.
“It’s another big Covid argument and I want this whole thing to go away.”
proper order
It is. His case was subject to a rigorous review and he qualifies for a medical exemption. That should be the end of the matter.
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Fair play to Djokovic on this.
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Must sicken people that he will be the most successful player ever
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Has he not already provided acceptable proof to get the exemption in the first place.
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Look at that Billy Big Balls Blowhard.
Unvaxxed Novak winning the Aussie Open would be a serious black eye to all the lidtf covid fanatics. It’d be a direct sign that this madness must end and a beacon of hope for poor mugs stuck in crimland like @Chucks_Nwoko getting a baton across the head enroute to his beachside coffee.
Let’s go Novak.
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