Q. Why is Sharapova getting all these fines?
Sharapova is facing fines on two separate counts. The first is for her withdrawal from Berlin, the second if she opts to miss a WTA photo shoot designed to promote the Sony Ericsson year-end Championships in Doha this November.
Q. Why is she being fined $125,000 for missing Berlin?
Again, there are two separate penalties in play. Firstly, as one of the WTA's top players, Sharapova has to play a certain number of events in return for a share of the bonus pool at the end of the year. Berlin was one of Sharapova's required seven Tier I events, and falling short by one would cost her 25% of her $500,000 bonus - $125,000.
Strictly speaking, this isn't money Sharapova is having taken away from her, it's just money that was available but she won't be getting.
Secondly, there are the standard WTA fines for pulling out of a tournament, which vary according to the player's star power ('gold exempt' rating) and her track record of withdrawals during the season, as well as the timing of the withdrawal. For a player of Sharapova's status, these begin at $10,000 and go up to $80,000 for multiple last-minute withdrawals.
But in this specific case, the WTA confirmed in an email that Sharapova won't have to pay because she did decide to cite a medical reason for missing Berlin.
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MARIA @ HER WEBSITE* LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS...
May 5, 2008
The birthday party itself was beautiful... When I got back I had to do the few shoots that I couldn't do the week of Amelia, as I do every year after the Miami tournament. Of course on the 3rd day, ahead of an 8hr print shoot, I wake up feeling like I got run over by a bus...and have to call in a doctor on the shoot...only to hear that I got a really bad viral infection with a big fever and that I have to get on antibiotics [...] Quite ironic, as a few days before that I was trying to come up with some 'excuse' for pulling out of Berlin...next time I'll be careful what I wish for. So now I'm back in training and boy oh boy do those things zap your energy out of you! [ ... ]I am sure many of you can tell that I am just a little frustrated with a couple of tour executives who don't ever listen to the players and want to do their own thing. For a sport that has so much potential to grow and get bigger, you would think that the players voice would be important but unfortunately that's not the case. They just do whatever they want and tell us what to do and how to do it. And on top of that walk around like they're the stars. I have tried to work with them, I have attended numerous amounts of meetings throughout the years, but they just do what they want and threaten to fine me. So since they will not listen to me, I am going to start giving my fans a behind the scenes look at life on tour...let the fun begin! MARIA NEEDS YOUR HELP
May 2, 2008
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 is 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 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. Text via www.mariasharapova.com Q. Does the WTA 'force' players to cite injuries in order to avoid fines?**
No, but it allows them avoid or reduce their penalties if they show that an injury or illness is keeping them from playing. Players can withdraw from two events a year for medical reasons without getting fined. (Withdrawals at which the player shows up and does a press conference, as Sharapova did in Dubai and Miami earlier this year, are not counted in this quota.)
But while the objective of the rule is to give some amnesty to players who are genuinely hurt, it also creates an incentive for players to fake or exaggerate an injury when they simply don't want to play.
If, as Sharapova says, she's basically healthy, she had two choices: go the truthful route and be penalized, or produce a doctor's note and get a pass.
Her point: don't put players in this situation.
Q. Will next year's WTA Roadmap changes 'solve all these problems'?
In a sense, but not in a way that benefits Sharapova. The exact rules are still under discussion, but it looks increasingly like the issue of injury will become irrelevant when it comes to penalties for pulling out of the very biggest WTA events.
So not showing up at a big tournament like Miami next year would see Sharapova get fined regardless of whether she was injured, plus get her some sort of suspension as well. (This is and will continue to be waived if the player shows up at the tournament to do a press conference).
On the plus side for her, players will be able to get away with playing one or two tournaments less than under the current setup.
Q. If she's healthy, why isn't Sharapova playing Berlin?
Top players like Sharapova have to set their schedules well in advance - her schedule for the first half of this year would have been fixed last October. The original plan was something like this:
Originally, Sharapova would have had four weeks' break from competition before playing back-to-back weeks in Berlin and Rome. But after hitting the wall in Indian Wells, she missed Miami and played the green clay events and Amelia Island and Charleston instead. Berlin, which comes two weeks after Charleston, didn't fit into the rejigged schedule.
Q. Why doesn't she want to do the photo shoot at Rome?
Sharapova says she doesn't do photo shoots before a big event. It could also mean getting there earlier than she had planned - the shoot can be done any day from Sunday-Tuesday, and top players with a first-round bye don't have to start till Wednesday.
Q. Can the WTA 'force' her to do the photo shoot?
Sort of, in the sense that it's part of the rules and they can fine her if she doesn't: "All players are required, if requested, to participate in one (1) activity per year (not to exceed five [5] hours, including travel time) for major marketing or publicity purposes for the WTA and/or a WTA Tour sponsor that takes place in or around a tournament..."
Q. Why are the fines so enormous?
Sharapova cited a fine of $300,000 for not doing a shoot, and was later quoted saying it could go as high as $700,000. That's about 40% of her prize money so far this year. Okay, so ti works about to only about 2% of her total annual income, but that's quite a lot to lose over a photo shoot that only lasts a few hours.
The tour's normal fines for not fulfilling on-court obligations are significant but not outsized, topping out at $10,000 per missed commitment (though more in some cases for something as major as this shoot).
Sharapova's figures are in a different league because, like other Nike players, she doesn't wear the Sony Ericsson WTA sponsor patch on her clothing. Once a tournament is into the quarterfinals, not wearing the patch for a televised match means a fine of $50,000 each time. When you win as much as Sharapova has this year, that adds up very quickly.
What does that have to do with this photo shoot? Well, in order for a player to avoid the patch fines, "the WTA may require her to provide the sponsor and/or the WTA with benefits commensurate with the value of wearing the patch."
In Sharapova's case, says the WTA, the photo shoot is her "make good" activity. Serena Williams may be in the same situation.
Q. Has Sharapova speaking out on her website got a lot of attention?
A fair amount, yes. It's not unprecedented for players to complain about the tours on their sites, but the combination of Sharapova, a photo shoot, six-figure sums and words like "boycott" gave it some good bounce. It certainly got more play than the WTA tournaments in Prague or Fes.
Late last year, both Serena Williams and Andy Roddick also complained about rules related to pullouts.
"I need to go to my doctor in the U.S.A to make sure I am ok but what u guys don't know is that I have to go to a mandatory player party on Saturday night," wrote Serena after pulling out of her first match at the year-end championships in Madrid. "It's kinda ironic and unfair that I can't go get healthy because of a party. I mean who in their right mind made up these rules."
"So I have a little bit of a problem that has been bothering me - interested to know other people's thoughts," wrote Roddick about his withdrawal from the Paris Masters. "I got fined 20 grand for not going to Paris. In order to avoid the fine I would have had to stay in France for 4 or 5 days to fulfill media obligations for the tourney [...] I read 3 days later that Nikolay Davydenko has been fined 2 grand for not trying in a match…I AM NOT here to say he did or did not try in that match…I didn’t see it…just heard about it…the thing that got me was the 2 grand fine [...] taking care of injuries and health to be prepared for their event= 20 grand…not trying= 2 grand…anyone else see a problem with this??”
Maybe it's time for an online petition.
Q. What happens now?
In some ways, Sharapova has placed herself in an awkward no-win situation: she'll have to either pay a huge fine or back down and do the shoot. But the WTA may find a way to accommodate her somehow, which they certainly have incentive to do., even if just to get her to stop writing that the tour's executives "just do whatever they want and tell us what to do and how to do it. And on top of that walk around like they're the stars"...
One thing's for sure - this photo campaign will be getting more attention than anyone could previously have dreamed of.