{"id":49285,"date":"2021-03-25T02:27:33","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T03:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=49285"},"modified":"2021-03-25T04:01:26","modified_gmt":"2021-03-25T04:01:26","slug":"tennis-feud-explodes-amid-furious-tirade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=49285","title":{"rendered":"Tennis feud explodes amid furious tirade"},"content":{"rendered":"

The simmering feud between the ATP<\/a> and the PTPA has exploded, with one of the leaders of the breakaway group launching a ferocious tirade at the ATP chairman.<\/p>\n

Canadian Vasek Pospisil<\/a>, who along with world No.1 Novak Djokovic<\/a> launched the Professional Tennis Players Association last year,<\/a> unleashed a torrent of abuse during his first round match at the Miami Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The world No.67 was beaten in three sets by American Mackenzie McDonald, who made a run to the fourth round of the Australian Open last month.<\/p>\n

Pospisil was handed a code violation in the first set after smashing his racquet, and then had a point deducted for verbal abuse when down set point, handing the first set to McDonald.<\/p>\n

Umpire Arnaud Gabas attempted to defuse the situation at the subsequent changeover, asking the normally mild-mannered Pospisil, "What's happening with you?"<\/p>\n

It was then that Pospisil unleashed on ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi.<\/p>\n

"An hour and a half yesterday, the chair of the ATP, f–king screaming at me in a player meeting for trying to unite the players," Pospisil said to Gabas.<\/p>\n

\"Vasek<\/p>\n

"For an hour and a half … the leader of the ATP … get him out here.<\/p>\n

"F–king a—hole …. If you want to default me, I'll gladly sue this whole organisation."<\/p>\n

Gabas attempted to calm the Canadian, telling Pospisil he should confront Gaudenzi away from the court.<\/p>\n

Pospisil recovered to take the second set 6-4, before McDonald claimed the third, closing out the match 6-3.<\/p>\n

It has been reported that Gaudenzi reduced Pospisil to tears in front of a large group of players in yesterday's meeting, per opencourt.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It's claimed the ATP boss referred to Pospisil as, among other things, "ignorant" and "uneducated."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/tomtebbutt\/status\/1374852644725006342?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

The 30-year-old Canadian, who is a Wimbledon doubles champion, and also a quarter-finalist in singles at the All England club, maintains the formation of the PTPA isn't an attempt to put the ATP out of business.<\/p>\n

Instead, he believes the two organisations can co-exist, with the PTPA representing the interests of the players.<\/p>\n

"I think the only thing it really does is just organise the players in a way we haven't had, and having legal protection, because right now we're not legally protected, within the ATP," Pospisil told tennismajors.com last September.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/VasekPospisil\/status\/1374926365783379971?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/VasekPospisil\/status\/1374926366576144386?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"The tour can run the way it is running right now but within the ATP we have no protection and if we have our own association we'll have protection."<\/p>\n

In the same interview, Pospisil spoke highly of Gaudenzi, although events of the last 24 hours would suggest their relationship has deteriorated significantly in the last six months.<\/p>\n

"I personally really like Massimo (Calvelli, the ATP chief executive) and Andrea, I think they're really great guys, men of principle, competent, smart."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The simmering feud between the ATP and the PTPA has exploded, with one of the leaders of the breakaway group launching a ferocious tirade at […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49285"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49285"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49287,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49285\/revisions\/49287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}