A personal view of tennis by Jeff Davies

Truth in Tennis - Part 2
 

For some years Manuela and myself have attended the Boys' 16 and 18 USTA National Clay Court Championships held annually in Washington DC. We are the event's official photographers and you can find our pictures and information about the event at http://www.ustaclay.com. During this year's event I was shocked to read a post by Marcia Frost on Colette Lewis' junior tennis blog at http://tenniskalamazoo.blogspot.com/2006/07/not-much-drama-in-quarterfinal-matches.html#comments which read:

"I also attended the Claycourts last year when the only ones treated worse than the players were the press. Unlike Colette I have no intention of going back with the present management there and I obviously made the right decision, though I'm sorry for the players' sake that I've been hearing things haven't improved."

I had already heard that she was telling anybody who would listen about her views of the tournament but, as if often the case with rumors in the tennis world, the stories I heard third- or fiftieth-hand were rich in speculation but poor in specifics. I posted a response that I hoped would restore some balance and maybe elicit more factual comments. Unfortunately (for the freedom of the media) Colette Lewis is a friend of Marcia Frost and censored the message so that comments that were critical of Ms Frost were removed before she allowed it to be posted (it seems as though she censors all comments that are submitted to her blog to ensure that only opinions that are favorable to her and her friends are included - she refused to allow another post which pointed out that Marcia Frost was not a member of the USTA Collegiate Committee after she once again alleged that she was).

I then received an email from Marcia containing a long list of very specific complaints about the tournament. Some of them seemed to be the result of her not being treated in the manner to which she believed she was entitled - being accommodated, fed and chauffeured in a style appropriate to her status. For example, she was horrified at having to pay the regular rate at her chosen hotel and believed that the tournament director should have taken care of her bill; she didn't like the facilities at the main tournament site (claiming they were dirty and bug-infested) in spite of it being one of Washington's finest country clubs - with an 'initiation fee' of $100,000); and she was not adequately fed and watered at the tournament's expense. Etc. Etc. The details she provided about the hotel were quickly identified as completely untrue. As for the remainder of her personal complaints, I'll just say that her ego seemed to be far ahead of reasonable expectations. We have always been treated exceptionally well - better than at any of the many other major tournaments that we attend each year (including all Grand Slam events and the Masters). We have also spoken to other members of the media that, according to Ms Frost, are 'mistreated' at the event (from far more prestigious organizations, such as the Washington Post). Ms Frost seems to be on her own.

But much worse were the serious complaints leveled at the management of the tournament. Allegations of mistreatment of players; abuse of "the money"; favoritism; mismanagement; etc. Even that the tournament director censored all reporting from the event and threatened not to pay his own media consultant (Colette Lewis) if she included any negative details (such as matches running late) and did not include details (that were, according to Ms Frost, known lies) to make the tournament look better. What made the allegations particularly serious was that Ms Frost claimed that many of her allegations originated with the USTA and were merely being reported by her. Ms Frost claims that one of the committees that she is a member of is the USTA Junior Collegiate Committee and that, as a result, she has influence and a role within the USTA Junior Competition Committee - which has responsibility for managing junior tournaments. Ms Frost alleged that the chairperson of the committee called her after the event to discuss the complaints that had been received. Also that further formal discussion took place with other members of the committee relating to the numerous complaints about the event. She advised me that a decision had been taken by the committee to move the event to a new location and management in 2007. This was later amended to a decision that it would occur if a small fraction of the number of complaints made in 2005 were received in 2006. She told me that the event management had been warned accordingly.

Serious stuff. But now we come to the strange parts:

Colette Lewis stated that Ms Frost's allegations about the tournament director 'censoring' her work or refusing to pay her are false;
The chairperson of the USTA Junior Collegiate Committee said that Ms Frost was not, and never has been, a member of that committee;
The chairperson of the USTA Junior Competitions Committee said that she had not had any contact with Ms Frost regarding the event and had not contacted her to discuss complaints as she alleged;
The chairperson of the USTA Junior Competitions Committee confirmed that the allegations were false and that no warning was given to the tournament director of the event; that he was held in high regard by the committee and that the event had been confirmed at the same location and under the same management for 2007.
The tournament director confirmed that he had heard nothing of the allegations, complaints or warnings.

So is Ms Frost simply making all this stuff up? Has her ego been so badly dented at not receiving star treatment that she is prepared to make up deliberate lies to damage the tournament director and the event and the USTA?

Or are members of the USTA Junior Competitions Committee discussing confidential committee business with people who are not members and passing information that is either wrong or is true but being denied?

Knowing for a fact that some of Ms Frost's personal allegations were untrue and unfounded, I was fairly confident that the remainder were.

So I suggested to the chairperson of the committee that she should be concerned that someone was spreading false and damaging rumors and identifying her committee as their source. I expected her to be concerned and anxious to protect the integrity of her committee and the reputation of the tournament director who, if the reports of the committee's decisions were untrue, was being publicly humiliated and damaged in the name of the committee. She first got the whole thing completely wrong and somehow got the impression that I had made the allegations. When she was corrected by a member of the committee, she told me that she would confirm to the members of the committee that the allegations were being made by Ms Frost but "that is as far as I'm taking it". She has refused to discuss the matter further in spite of some fairly strong suggestions on my part that she owes a duty to the tournament director to establish the truth of Ms Frost's allegations that members of her committee have passed this information to Ms Frost and to make her findings known. She has not responded.

Which makes me just a little less sure - and wonder just what the truth really is.

I am somewhat 'concerned' at the lack of accountability of the USTA which is given tens of millions of dollars each year by millions of fans through 'membership' fees but does not allow any of them to have any say in the way that their money is spent or in the way that the USTA operates and 'their' sport is governed.

Is this the way that this committee operates - like a modern-day 'Star Chamber' that meets in secrecy and shields its processes and decisions from USTA members and the tennis public that it allegedly serves while refusing to investigate allegations of misconduct by committee members and support the people who give their time and money to running the USTA's tournaments? Or are there mavericks on the committee feeding false information to Ms Frost without the knowledge of its Chairperson for who-knows-what motives? Or are the allegations purely a figment of Ms Frost's imagination.

I would like to know who we can trust - Ms Frost or the USTA. One of them is deliberately lying and innocent people are being hurt as a result. Ms Frost has, apparently, shared her allegations with many people. Fairness and a basic concern for the truth dictates that the USTA establishes which it is and makes its finding public so that we all know who to trust.