The fine imposed on the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) by the world governing body for women’s tennis over the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian players has been halved following a successful appeal.
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and the men’s equivalent body, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), both accused Wimbledon and the LTA of discriminating against their players and refused to sanction ranking points for Wimbledon in 2022. The LTA excluded Russian and Belarusian tennis players from all of its tournaments last year in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The WTA swiftly issued a $1m (£805,000) fine to the British tennis tournaments, with the LTA shouldering $750,000 (£604,000) of that fine. The All England Lawn Tennis Club, which hosts Wimbledon and also owns the warm-up event in Birmingham, was fined $250,000 (£201,000).
The ATP also imposed a $1m fine on its five UK-based events, which are all owned by the LTA, meaning the governing body for British tennis paid a total of $1.75m (£1.41m) in fines last year. As a result of the fines, LTA will make a loss in its 2022 accounts, which will be covered by the organisation’s cash reserves.
The LTA appealed against the WTA’s fines, with the two organisations ultimately agreeing to halve their portion of the fine to $375,000 (£302,000). The successful appeal comes after the LTA decided to reverse its ban this year and allow Russian and Belarusian players to compete at their events.
According to the LTA, the WTA’s rules and procedures are clearer, leading to a swift agreement between the two parties. The LTA has only been able to “make representations” to the ATP in order for them to reconsider their decision and they are still awaiting a response.
Scott Lloyd, the LTA’s chief executive, admitted that the LTA would have spent the money from the fines differently and have had to pull back from certain activities, but insists that it has not fundamentally changed the organisation’s plans.
“We would necessarily have spent those funds this year in a different way,” said Lloyd. “We’d rather not invest them in fines. Does it mean we’ve fundamentally retracted from our performance competitions calendar in 2023? No, because we feel so strongly that is the right thing, to continue to invest in what we have prioritised.”
Despite the highly contentious row with the WTA and ATP, Lloyd believes that the past year may actually allow the organisations to work more closely together in the future.
“In some ways, I’d like to think the level of respect between the organisations has actually been enhanced over this period. Because we’ve had a lot more interaction on some difficult topics and worked our way through them together,” said Lloyd.
Meanwhile, the LTA has expressed an interest in the possibility of hosting a pre-Wimbledon grass court Masters 1000 tournament, should the ATP look to pursue a 10th event. Andrea Gaudenzi, the ATP chief executive, has made significant changes to the ATP calendar since his term began in 2020 and has previously proposed a 10th Masters 1000 event in the second week of the grass season. The ATP has not yet decided whether it will seriously pursue the idea.
“If those discussions ultimately progressed to something they are happy to work on and therefore take, then we would certainly try to make sure that we are across that process and that, subject to the terms and conditions of it being right for us, we would obviously express our interest in bringing it to Britain,” Lloyd said.