Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun has been threatened with a three-year ban by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the main body governing men’s professional tennis, because he has registered to play in the China Open, but has instead opted to compete in the Asian Games.
That has put Lu, who is a legitimate contender for gold in the Asian Games men’s singles, in a bind.
Lu hoped to compete in the China Open, a tournament being jointly organized by both the ATP and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) that begins on Monday next week, but the Asian Games singles finals is not being held until Tuesday next week.
Photo: AFP
Had Lu reached the Asian Games final, he could have opted to drop out of the China Open or try to have his first-round match rescheduled for Wednesday next week, but the ATP decided to take a hard line on the issue and issued an ultimatum to the world No. 43 that if he did not report for the China Open on Monday next week he would be banned from ATP events for three years and fined US$100,000, Lu and his team said.
Others said to have received similar ultimatums, such as Denis Istomin and Farrukh Dustov of Uzbekistan, and Andrey Golubev and Alekstandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan, have pulled out of the Asian Games to avoid the sanction and were not included in the men’s singles draw, but Lu decided to compete and has been made the top seed, but he knows that if he reaches the semi-finals on Sunday and wins, he might have to forfeit a shot at the gold medal on Tuesday next week.
“I can deal with the fine, that doesn’t matter, but I can’t accept the ban,” Lu was quoted as saying by the Apple Daily. “We were shocked when we received the notification. It came just an hour before registration for individual events. Now all that can be done is to play until I can’t play anymore.”
The ATP’s threatened ban seems excessive considering that previous bans for doping or betting on tennis have not exceeded two years.
Also facing the same situation, the WTA has taken a much more open position, allowing players competing at the Asian Games flexibility on when they have to report for the China Open or pulling out of the competition, Lu’s team said.
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