Women’s Tennis after Serena Williams

Who do you expect would square off in the women’s singles final at Wimbledon this year? It’s comparatively easy to predict the men’s final line-up. The top five players of the men’s tour account for 47 of 50 Grand Slam Titles since 2005. In women’s tennis, uncertainty is the dominant theme.

Serena Williams, who has won 72 singles titles, including 23 Grand Slams (a record in open era, starting 1968, and one short of the all-time record held by Margaret Court), has taken a break from the game as she is expecting a child. After Serena, who can be a new star in Tennis? Jelena Ostapenko – 20 year old Latvian won the French Open last month, she became the youngest woman to win a Grand Slam singles title since Maria Sharapova won the Wimbledon in 2004 at the age of 17.

After winning the French Open last year, Garbine Muguruza of Spain played in 19 tournaments till the event this year. Her best performances were three semi-finals finishes. World No.1, Angelique Kerber, won two Grand Slams last year. This year, the German has hardly made any statements. Of the 12 tournaments she has played so far, her best finish was in the Abierto GNP Seguros finals in April. At the French Open, she lost in the first round.

An open race to the No.1 spot could be good news for the rest of the field. World No.2 Simona Halep of Romania, after a slow start this year, Halep was the runner-up at the 2017 French Open. Karolina Pliskova, the world No.3 from the Czech Republic, is another contender for the year-end top ranking, having won four titles so far this year. Still, the field is wide open.

Of the 33 tournaments played this year till 26 June, only Elina Svitolina from Ukraine has won four titles. Three others – Karolina Pliskova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Johanna Konta – have won two titles each and a staggering 23 women have won a title each this year. The return of Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azerenka from Belarus and Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic could help the WTA Tour. 

Match Fixing: Horse Race to Tennis

Section 115BB of the Indian Income Tax Act spells out the “tax on winnings from lotteries, crossword puzzles, and races including horse races, card games and other games of any sort or gambling or betting of any form or nature whatsoever”. That is, if one bet and win, one must pay his taxes. The money we make from betting on Horses or anything is taxable.

The existence of this section suggests that such money is above board and legal. But here is the kicker horse racing is the only sport in which betting is legal, there are licensed bookmarkers who will take our bets on any given race. If one must declare winnings from betting of any form as income and pay tax on it, why is only such form of betting legal? To me, making horse racing the only sport that one can legally bet on is as entirely lacking of sense.

But all this has been on my mind because of the latest uproar over betting in sport. The recent news that matches fixing has happened in professional Tennis for years, and even in Grand Slam tournaments. Without naming anyone, it was reported that “28 top level players, including winners of Grand Slam Titles”, have been involved in Match Fixing, that the tennis establishment has known this and yet not acted against these players.

Until now, the only instance of match fixing alleged in pro tennis was in 2007, when World No 4 Nikolay Davydenko played a much lower ranked Argentine, Martin Vassallo in a match in Poland. Out of the blue, huge amount of money were placed on Martin victory, even as Nikolay opened up a comfortable lead in the match. Later, Nikolay claimed an injury to his foot and forfeited the match.

We also knew well that people bet on horse races and cricket and archery and every other sport on the planet and that there are inevitably, inexorably, attempts to influence the outcomes of those games. Whatever the explanation, the inescapable truth about sports is that people will bet on matches and attempt fixes.