Tennis News: Chris Evert, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic

The WTA Finals in November were controlled by the weather. There was extreme wind and torrential downpours and lots of stoppages of play. The WTA simply made a bad decision in holding the event in Cancún, Mexico, and tennis great Chris Evert tweeted that same sentiment recently.

Chris Evert, of course, is a big part of the WTA Finals. She does her best to sell the tournament to the general public, commentates on the event, and then hands out the awards to the winner and runner-up. She just did not watch the tournament on her television; She had to work through all the same weather the players were having to deal with.

In her tweet, Chris Evert said simply, “One of my 2024 wishes is that the @WTAFinals
gets a great venue that champions, respects and supports women…” That is about as damning of a critique of Cancun as one can say. The city is great, but not a great location for a high-end tennis tournament because the weather is a wild card and the venue does not have a roof.

Chris Evert hopes for a different venue for WTA Finals in 2024

To be fair, the WTA waited and waited some more to finalize where the year-end event would be held as they were hoping for a tournament in Saudi Arabia. The organization simply did a poor job of working ahead on the logistics. Hopefully, Evert will get her wish in 2024 and the WTA will do a better job of managing where the event will be played.

https://twitter.com/ChrissieEvert/status/1728772179708490028

Djokovic dissed and Sinner blessed

In other news, Novak Djokovic fans are going to be peeved. Even though the ATP No. 1 won three Grand Slams and the ATP Finals in 2023 and has won 24 Grand Slams in his career, he has never been mentioned as a potential winner of the ATP’s Sportsmanship Award. Casper Ruud won the award in 2022, and Roger Federer won the award 13 times. But I guess Djokovic just wins too much and does not have a chance to show he can be humble in defeat and show more, well…sportsmanship.

And in the final news for Saturday, Jannik Sinner has got some bling. After getting noticed at Wimbledon for a Gucci duffle bag that had a bit of color – Wimbledon clothing is traditionally all white – Sinner is becoming something of a fashion icon among other players. So which brands endorse him?

Nike is the one that pays the most as Sinner currently has a 10-year and $158 million deal with the footwear and clothing brand. Besides Gucci, other Italian brands that endorse the Italian are Lavazza and Alfa Romeo. Sinner also uses Head rackets. The bottom line is that Jannik Sinner’s bottom line is only growing due to his endorsements and the number of tournaments he is beginning to win.