WTA CEO Steve Simon - Pam Shriver’s story, Wimbledon’s ban on Russian & Belarusian players, Peng Shuai, 5 sets at slams
The Tennis Podcast
David Law
4.5 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2022
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With so many geopolitical events affecting tennis, it’s a timely moment for Catherine to speak at length to WTA CEO Steve Simon.
Following yesterday’s interview with Pam Shriver, and the decision of Wimbledon and the LTA to ban Russian and Belarusian players, Catherine starts by asking him about those urgent issues.
Later, there’s discussion about the WTA’s decision to pull out of China, Tennis United, the latest on Peng Shuai, new title sponsor Hologic, on court coaching, and the best of 3 vs best of 5 debate at Grand Slams.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Billie Jean King. This is Mary and Bartorzi. |
| 0:03.1 | I'm Matt's Vylander. This is Mary Carillo. This is Pam Shriver. |
| 0:06.4 | This is Yannick Noah and you're listening to the tennis podcast. |
| 0:20.7 | Hello folks. Yesterday we brought you our interview with Pam Shriver in which she talks so |
| 0:26.5 | movingly about the relationships she'd had for the first coach, all the trauma that that's |
| 0:30.8 | a broader and I think you'll agree that it was an immensely powerful, important listen. |
| 0:37.6 | Well today we're speaking to Steve Simon, the chief executive of the |
| 0:41.6 | Hologic WTA Tour. Steve has been leading women's tennis since 2015. Before that he was tournament |
| 0:48.1 | director and Dean Wells and recently he's been at the forefront of the WTA's response |
| 0:53.4 | to the disappearance of Punxhwei, suspending all of the WTA's business in China until she's |
| 0:58.7 | independently and verifiably confirmed to be safe, well and able to speak without coercion. |
| 1:04.4 | The WTA were also in the news yesterday how he put out a statement, criticising the |
| 1:09.0 | moves of Wimbledon and the LTA in Britain for banning Russian and Belarusian tennis players |
| 1:14.7 | from their events in the wake of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. So it's timely for us to be |
| 1:20.0 | able to speak to Steve and ask him about those subjects and a number of others. So here's Steve |
| 1:25.2 | Simon talking to Catherine Whitaker here on the tennis podcast. Well first and foremost thank you |
| 1:32.2 | very much indeed for taking the time to do this. We've been wanting to speak to you for a while and |
| 1:36.6 | we know how precious your time is and we're very grateful indeed. I want to speak to you first about |
| 1:44.5 | the the story that Pam Shrive told us on the podcast this week and incredibly difficult |
| 1:51.2 | and moving story to listen to. I know Pam called you to tell you she had done this interview with |
| 1:56.6 | us and decided to tell that story. What was your reaction when you got that phone call? What |
| 2:02.8 | went through your mind? Well first of all it's good to be here and when I did receive the call from |
... |
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