By Mike McIntyre
Former World No. 7 Tim Mayotte stopped by to talk with Match Point Canada about the upcoming ATP Board vote Tuesday in Rome where they will fill the now vacant position previously occupied by Justin Gimelstob. Mayotte was the first big name to publicly announce his desire to contend for the position yet was curiously not selected as one of the six candidates to present in front of the Board. Here is what Mayotte shared with us ahead of this pivotal vote.
On his omission from the final six candidates:
I was surprised and a bit saddened but to look back on it I kind of understood. I've been out of the eyes of the players for some time. I was also surprised that Brad Gilbert didn't at least get a chance to get over to Rome to speak to the Player Council. He was sad but had some faith that the players could get it together and make a good choice.
Why Mayotte considered himself a strong candidate:
I actually served on the ATP Board for 6 years and was President of the Player Council - the position that Novak Djokovic now has - so I do have a lot of inside experience.
What are the biggest issues/challenges:
I don't think the issues have changed that dramatically (since his time as a player), I think what has happened is the the numbers have gotten much bigger...and I also think that unfortunately the conflicts of interest with the players and the tournament directors have gotten deeper and worse. And that's the primary point that I needed to make and I hope they take into consideration (Tuesday) as they go in for this vote. We saw it with Justin Gimelstob but also with a couple of tournament directors, the conflicts of interest are just terrible for the sport. If you put aside Justin's issues with the law, which obviously didn't bode well for anybody that's one issue.
The second issue was his production company was creating content for the ATP Tour that he was being paid for - I just learned of that a couple of weeks ago - and I was actually quite shocked to think that a board members would be benefiting from a contact that he was directly involved in with giving the OK to, and that's just ridiculous that that kind of conflict would be in place. You can't serve everybody in the most honest and the best way possible with that kind of conflict in place. And the players have to get ready to start hiring people who aren't in that conflicted position.
Suggested improvements:
The communication has to be much better. That does not mean that it's easy but it has to get much better from the Board to the players. And that's why I was going to propose as well that the Board member actually become a full time person. Part of the reason they have conflicts is that the Board member usually wants and can do other things to make more money. So if you were to actually increase the pay of the Board member and insist on no conflicts then they would basically travel lets say 30 weeks a year with the players. Then you're with them all the time, you're understanding the issues on the ground and I was going to petition that as a part of the solution. Full time or at least 25-30 weeks on the road and then no conflicts to go along with that and then you're going to get a much better chance of being able to communicate. Now obviously Rafa saying that you want somebody Spanish speaking makes total sense as well...But the biggest issues is the time on the Board and the face time that you get with the players. Right now it seems like 6-8 weeks on the road and then there's just a disconnect.
Do today's players understand what is happening:
Players do not understand in large part and that's because they're tennis players. When you're on the court you want to be able to focus on the court but that's also why you need to be able to trust the Board members and know the Board members so that in a short period of time they can get your confidence.
Mayotte's list of contenders:
I think the candidate who is going to win is Weller Evans who is a very respected person in the tennis community. He was a Tour Manager and Vice President ATP Tour for many years and really understands the game inside and out. There are some people who are concerned that he is really going to keep Justin in the loop, and I think that's Novak's position that he wants to have Weller and hopefully Justin as part of the position and that obviously concerns me to a certain extent. But that's their prerogative. Let's obviously hope that Justin gets his act together first of all and that Weller if he gets in the position that he is going to do a job that's right for all the players and not just a certain sect of them.
I think Mark Knowles is highly respected and very much well liked and a smart guy, so I think he has a chance and Nicolas Lapentti I think has a good chance as well. And to me those would be the primary candidates. But from what I understand Weller Evans has the best chance.
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