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.
British ice dance greats Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean returned to the rink where their remarkable journey began to help launch the first Synchro9 World Championships, bringing a new Olympic discipline to the city that shaped their careers. The inaugural championships take place from March 27 to April 4 at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena, the rink where Torvill and Dean teamed up as teenagers and where they performed their final show in July last year after skating together for 50 years. “For us, this is where it all started,” Dean said. “A lot of the skaters will start their Olympic journey out of
Influencers and content creators armed with smartphones and ring lights have featured prominently in the stands at this year’s US Open, as they try to grab the spotlight away from the on-court action at one of tennis’ marquee events. About 100 content creators were given credentials for the tournament, organizers said, with 20 of those dedicated to providing coverage of the food and beverage scene alone, where caviar-topped chicken nuggets and the famed “Honey Deuce” cocktail promise viral attention. Thousands more amateur social media hounds could be found throughout the plaza and in the stands — after shelling out for their own
Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) were dealt their first losses in their domestic leagues on Friday when Kylian Mbappe had an injury-time penalty saved in La Liga and PSG coughed up a lead in Ligue 1. Madrid fell at Real Betis 1-0 for its first defeat since the return of coach Jose Mourinho. PSG fell at home to Monaco 2-1 on the same day that coach Luis Enrique agreed to stay at the European champion through 2030. Betis stunned Madrid when newcomer Troy Parrott, an Irish striker, knocked in a ball that Thibaut Courtois did well to save from a header by
BATTLING GREATS: The Williams sisters had the crowd behind them in New York in a marathon match against Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Maya Joint on Friday Two-time women’s doubles champions Venus Williams and Serena Williams rolled back the years on Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open on Friday, but the sisters were unable to get past Australia’s Maya Joint and Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching, losing 6-3, 6-7(6), 7-6(10-7). The Williams’ duo had showed flashes of their brilliant best after recovering from losing the first set to level the match after taking the second set on a tie-break. Momentum and a raucous New York crowd appeared to be carrying them towards victory after they sprinted into a 5-0 lead in the third set tie-break. Chan and Joint fought back
RSS