http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/7381548.stm

Here are Maria's blog entries - which is where the story originated.

Statement May 1 2008

As many of you know, the WTA tour makes many players enter tournaments that they know the players will not be playing. I informed the WTA several months ago that if I played Charleston, I would have to pull out of Berlin. Now they are forcing me to give an injury for the reason why I am pulling out or they will give me an additional fine on top of the 125,000 fine already given to me. I am a very giving person, but I refuse to give anymore of my money to the WTA tour.So I want everyone to know that besides getting sick the past few days, I am healthy and I am looking forward to playing Rome. The good news is that the new road map for next year should solve all these problems.

5/2

I want all my fans to know that the WTA Tour is forcing me and several of the other top players to do a 4 hour commercial shoot for WTA Tour marketing materials. They want me to do this shoot on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday of the Rome tournament after flying 12 hours from LA. I have set my own personal rules when it comes to doing shoots and I never do shoots before tournaments because they are mentally draining and I want to just focus on my tennis. Now the WTA is telling me if I don't do this shoot they will fine me over $300,000. As you can see the WTA Tour loves to fine players. To be honest, I would love to do this and help promote the tour as much as possible, but to force me to do this shoot the day before a tier 1 tournament is just not right. I am interested in what my fans think I should do?

1) Should I just do the shoot?

2) Should I NOT do the shoot and take the fine?

3) Should I NOT do the shoot and take legal action against the WTA?

4) Should I contact the other top players and try to boycott the shoot?

5) Other

I can see why she dosen't want to do the shoot! And threatening to fine her $300,000 is a bit much! ;)
And then the week before they fined her $175,000 for pulling out of Berlin!
I really had no idea the fines on the tour would be so big! :blink:

The WTA seem to be quite ruthless. They have made www.wtaworld.com change their name to tennis forum just last month after threatening legal action.

Good on Maria for standing firm.

Absolutely ridiculous. I can completely understand why she doesn't want to take a photo shoot. I've always thought all of this media work that the players have to do before and during the tournies must be distracting from their tennis.

Even for Sharapova, $300,000 is quite a lot of money for a fine.

I am sure given her money she can afford it. :lol:

No offence but she doesn't seem to mind doing all this off court stuff that is not related to tennis and making a fortune out of that! :rolleyes:

Isn't the point Maria is making that there are appropraite times to do photoshoots?

And what about her informing the WTA two months ago that she never intended to play the German Open?

I know, but I can't help but find it ironic and hypocritcal coming from her. Tbh Laurie Iaughed out loud when I read it. :D But I do see the point.

I do agree though that the WTA are being far too demanding and I think that the business about her having to cite an injury to not play a tournie is outrageous. :yikes: I guess one problem is that folks like her who do the glamour stuff and PR and the WTA have a kind of symbiotic relationship - they feed off and benefit from each other. Now she doesn't want to play ball they are obviously put out. As she seemed to thrive on this kind of publicity shoot stuff in the beginning, I can see many more arguments occuring.

Do you know who else was supposed to do the photoshoot?

Funny she seems quite happy to do photo shoots when it's about making money from endorsments.

Forgive me if I struggle to feel sorry for a multi millionairess.

As for the whole Charleston/Berlin thing - fair enough she doesn't want a crazy schedule but then why play the non essential Amelia Island - for which she took a wild card!?

I don't know Superbrat but I can imagine it would be Ivanovic, Jankovic and someone like Vaidisova perhaps.

I have a big problem with the WTA as an organisation, I find they are too image and not enough substance - sure we can agree Maria does all the photoshoots when it suits her but at the same time I'm glad to see the WTA get some adverse publicity. And as I pointed out, they wanted to get WTA world closed and a compromise had to be reached.

http://www.tennisforum.com/announcement.php?f=19

Another thing I cann't understand is the incredible increase in the amount of prize money for certain tournaments and yet stadiums are always half empty all over the world, they must be in some sort of bubble.

Maria knows her obligations and schedule for every season she plays on the WTA. i don't know what her bitch is, figure it out.

The WTA isn't perfect but I think you're being unfair.

They listened to the players and as a result from next year the minimum number of tournaments they have to play will be reduced and the season will be shortened so the off season will be increased to two months - the WTA Championships will be taking place at the same time as normal tour events on the ATP.

In return they've asked the players to increase their commitment to the tour so there are less withdrawls & more top class fields - which is surely something we've all wanted to see?

That's why tournaments in Miami, IW, Madrid & Beijing are able to offer Masters Series level money as their tournaments will now be mandatory but also why the prize money will go up in Canada & Rome as they have been assured of better fields than currently.

In order to enforce that the WTA have ramped up their fee structure and it wouldn't surprise me if they were clamping down so hard on Sharapova because she made such a mockery of their only current mandatory tournament by skipping Miami but playing the tournaments that were held immediately before and after. That is unfair perhaps but we're going to see a lot more of this from next year.

Plus at the end of the day it is the players association not a governing body and if they were really unhappy they could do what the men are trying to do and prevent the current management from being reappointed. Since the WTA has done a pretty good job in the last few years of increasing TV & sponsorship deals & therefore prize money I find that highly unlikely.

My heart bleeds for her :rolleyes:







































NOT

It's stupid expecting a 4 hour photo shoot before a Tier I tournament :doh: :doh: :doh:

Maria does the shoots but NEVER during important tournaments, we have always known this and it is obvious to anyone....

The WTA is so in the wrong here it's not funny. :rolleyes:

So when are the WTA supposed to have these photo shoots if not before big tournaments - considering the other commitments players have - when else are the WTA supposed to get them all together in one place?

I see only one player is complaining about this and no surprise it would be Sharapova who's shown previously she's only interested in promoting her own brand - not womens tennis as a whole.

I think you have a point there... :ok: