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Indian Wells hires a new tournament director, but Tommy Haas' record on equality for women in tennis is spotty
PARIS – The BNP Paribas Open, which takes place every March at a picture-perfect tennis site in Indian Wells, Calif., has been grappling with a perception problem after some highly unfortunate remarks by the event’s tournament director, Ray Moore, during the weekend of the finals this year.
The 69-year-old Moore’s rather offensive and highly condescending comments about women’s tennis got him fired, although it took 24 hours for the South African to officially step down.
The criteria for hiring Moore’s successor obviously was a little more complex than it would be for the same job somewhere else. The tournament announced its selection Friday: long-time ATP Tour player Tommy Haas.
The official statement from tournament COO Steve Birdwell read as follows:
"As the BNP Paribas Open continues to grow and evolve in today’s tennis landscape, we see a clear need for a Tournament Director who will engage with players, sponsors and fans in a deep and meaningful way, and we believe that Tommy is well-positioned to achieve these goals. … Tommy is well-regarded by his peers on both tours and we believe that adding him to our existing veteran team will allow the tournament to flourish in the years to come.”
The whole situation in March was beyond unfortunate and the fact that brand-new WTA Tour CEO Steve Simon, who had come to that job after more than two decades with the Indian Wells event and a long-time friendship with Moore, didn’t help matters much.
Simon’s response, which almost required a hard-line stance, instead came off as rather forgiving of his friend and former colleague.
There are plenty of questions you could have about hiring a player with no other pertinent experience for such a big job; the Indian Wells event is the biggest on Tour, with the exception of the four Grand Slam events.
But here’s the biggest question: has Haas’s stand on equal prize money evolved since 2007, when Wimbledon first announced it was equalling the purses for the men and women at its crown-jewel event?
Here’s what he said back then, reacting to Wimbledon’s announcement while he competed at the ATP Tour stop in Memphis, Tennessee.
“I don't think it's really fair. I think the depth of men's tennis is much tougher than the women's, plus we play best of five sets … You might think it's not as brutal but you have to be in unbelievable shape on grass, even if the ball stays low and the points are shorter … Not to say that the women don't deserve it. The top players train very hard and are very good tennis players but in general I don't agree with it."
Haas was hardly a kid at the time just airing it out at the time; he was 29 years old.
(It’s worth noting that Andy Murray, who reached his first French Open final Friday, was a mere lad of 20 at the time and he supported the move).
The German-born Haas, 38, is married to American Sara Foster (daughter of Canadian composer David Foster). The former world No. 2’s career has been crushed by injuries. Surgery after surgery, comeback after comeback.
But he’s still officially an active player.
In a conference call with a few select U.S. journalists, Haas said he was looking "forward to the process of listening and being involved. ... (Moore’s) statements were very unfortunate, but this shouldn’t be a cloud over the tournament at all."
He also said that he’s not officially retired, although he is done for the season. He hopes to play a few tournaments next year, when he is 39.
There are plenty of former players who are tournament directors, but there isn’t much precedent for hiring a technically active player. British doubles specialist Ross Hutchins, who battled Hodgkin’s’ lymphoma in 2012 and did make it back to the tour briefly, was handed the job for the Queen’s Club tournament in 2014.
It’s a grass-court preparatory tournament that takes place next week in London. But Hutchins only lasted six months before leaving for a gig as vice-president of player relations for the ATP Tour – a job that obviously made better use of his experience.
In that conference call, Haas said that when Simon left for the WTA, he put out a few feelers to tournament owner Larry Ellison. “I made a hint here and there in a few conversations about it. In life, certain things happen for a reason,” he said.
Haas has been a regular hitting partner for the multi-gazillionaire Ellison, a few hit-and-giggle hours out of your week that can only bring positive returns.
He was entered in the Indian Wells event two years ago, even showed up to practice. But one day, he didn’t show up for a scheduled hitting session with Canadian Milos Raonic and the next thing you knew, he was out. He was a regular visitor this past spring, sitting with Ellison in his private box, as he planned yet another comeback. Haas had the ninth surgery of his career in April to repair torn ligaments in his right foot.
No doubt he’ll be asked about his Wimbledon comments at some point; let’s hope marriage to a strong, outspoken woman in Foster has made his views … evolve.
But the optics certainly aren’t all that great in the early blush of the hire.
Whether the tournament values the women as much as the men isn’t nearly as important as whether the perception is that it does. Already, Indian Wells went through 15 years without either of the Williams sisters after the ugly incident back in 2001; Serena returned in 2015, and Venus this year.
In short, Haas is going to have a busy six months. Not only will he be learning a job from scratch (and, as it happens, working with Moore, who remains the CEO of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden venue), he also will be trying to get back into shape for one final farewell run on the ATP Tour. And he’ll need to brush up on his diplomacy skills – or claim a bit of amnesia or immaturity – when the topic of equal prize money inevitably comes up.
