From a discussion with Gilles Simon, originally published by Stephen Griffaud on Tennis Break News.
Far from being forgotten, it’s with a certain interest that we continue to appreciate Simon’s frank opinions. He lived up to this Wednesday evening as the guest of the broadcast “Smash Club” on Twitch with his friend Gaêl Monfils. Besides being very critical of Noah Rubin, he also underlined the lack of coherence and clarity around the US Open organisation. The Frenchman is also astonished by the size of the polemics about the Adria Tour, even in France. He insisted on recalling the role the Serb had, in the background, during the [ATP] Tour suspension.
The first controversy is about the re-start of the Tour while the pandemic continues to rage in a lot of the countries across the world, and especially in the United States.
“The role of the USTA is to want to organise the US Open. As a player, if we’re only talking prize money, we’re pretty free. We can decide where to go, judge if it’s worth the risk to travel to the US… And then there’s the question of points. And there, it’s a big swamp. No one knows the rules. They organise the US Open, but we don’t know if the points count for 2 or 6 months. So that means that you’re obviously not really ‘free’ at all. It’s not equal for all. As long as we don’t have an answer, I can’t take a position. For me, we shouldn’t give points.”
“That way, everyone is free to decide what they want to do. But the organisers have their butts between two chairs. They say nothing about this, so don’t worry, and they’ll continue to say nothing. They want to give points because they’re contractually obligated by TV rights. But, on the other hand, they’re told, ‘Wait, you can’t organise this event knowing that everyone is sure not to attend.’ South Americans, for example. If they leave, they can’t return home for three months. As soon as it’s obligatory, frankly, I don’t think points should be awarded. But ‘no points’ doesn’t mean no tournaments. The most important thing about having rules is that you have them from the start, or you don’t have them at all. You know there are tournaments, but for those who can’t come, it’s treacherous.”
Gilles Simon reflected more specifically on the players’ drastic initial conditions at tournaments and the repercussions should something happen.
“The health regulations are those of the given country. And you’re told: ‘Don’t worry, in two months, it will all work out.’ But, at bottom, the truth is, we know nothing, and that’s not welcome. The first rules that were received, and were later relaxed, were to stay for a fortnight in a confined, secret space with a hotel-tournament-hotel round-trip with tests every day. But, when you get there, if the test says you’re positive, you can’t go back home and need to stay at the hotel for 14 days? That’s where, as a player, you want answers. If there’s a positive case, what happens then? Does everyone have their points removed? If we’ve reached the 3rd round, it would mean a general wave of forfeits… There’s no contingency plan for this because they told themselves, ‘We’ll organise this thing, we’ll put in money—and after, screw everyone else.’ Everyone has their own interests. On the one hand, the Americans tell themselves, ‘Yes, but it’s fine here; but, on the other hand, we don’t want to go to Europe.’ The others say, ‘It’s the opposite for us.’ It’s tough.”
Asked about the polemical debates around the health disaster of the Adria Tour, Gilles Simon doesn’t say much about Novak Djokovic’s responsibility.
“He’s someone who’s very intelligent, who then fell into something pretty big. He has no one to blame but himself.”
But the Frenchman spent time especially to explain the context of the debates.
“Commenting on the repercussions of all that is complicated because it’s all just politics. There are those who want not to attach any importance to the event, like the US Open and Roland Garros. They’ll load up on Djokovic by saying that it’s entirely his fault, and that they would organise it better—because they don’t want that event to blow back on their tournaments. There are a bunch of people who are happy to weaken Djokovic because he takes up space, and, now, he’s a sitting duck and he can’t escape. If it were any other player, it wouldn’t have made the front page of l’Équipe on two consecutive days when tennis hasn’t been around for I don’t know how long. It’s not anodyne; it’s not an accident.”
The French player didn’t hesitate to nail Noah Rubin, who had a lot of comments about the event and even criticised the Adria Tour organisation before the positive tests were revealed.
“The first violent wave of criticisms of Djokovic were very revealing. Since when does Noah Rubin get a whole page to destroy Djokovic? You’d think that they’ve really dug deep through a lot of guys to get to Noah Rubin. He’s not the first guy you’d ask yourself, ‘On this, we’ve really got to get Noah Rubin’s opinion’ [laughs]. We have the Federation influence in France, and the Americans have it over there, too. So, when you have a teleguided missile going from Noah Rubin towards Novak Djokovic, you have the right to ask if that’s where it comes from.”
Gilles Simon then defends Novak Djokovic about the infamous Zoom conference organised at the beginning of June, which gathered 400 people, without the presence of the world #1.
“Noah Rubin reproached him for not being present for the Zoom meeting. But Djokovic spent 1500 hours on the phone defending his cause without them knowing it. He’s reproached for not being at the final meeting when he’d already discussed all the topics beforehand. Novak has done a lot more for Noah Rubin than a lot of other guys, but [Rubin] decided that he didn’t like him because he wasn’t at the meetings that were a resumé of all the meetings [Djokovic] had banged through the previous three months. The problem with players is that you can give the platform to anyone. You can always find guys who disagree and don’t have a coherent vision because they haven’t been on the Tour for so long. Novak will earn zero € cents at the end of the year; the prize money for Grand Slam qualies doesn’t change anything for him, but he gets shit on for doing it. Because Novak tries to do so many things, it irritates a lot of people. And, right now, it irritates the USTA who wants to play the tournament and is trying to reassure the world; but if the world #1 says, ‘I won’t play under those conditions,’ obviously they’re not happy. It’s quite astonishing to see American players ganging up on Novak Djokovic because he doesn’t want to play at their home. There’s a whole group saying, ‘You have to play!’”
Finally, asked about the controversy surrounding Novak Djokovic’s father, Gilles Simon used the occasion to comment on Djokovic’s relative popularity compared to Roger Federer, disappointed that the world #1 spends so much effort to be liked.
“You just have to accept that Roger isn’t just Roger in tennis but everywhere in the world. He’s the most loved athlete. You can’t fight against that. Even if Djokovic won 22, 25, 36 Grand Slams, people would prefer Roger anyway. When Novak forgets that he’s less beloved and tells himself, like at Wimbledon last year, ‘OK, you’re all against me. OK, I’m going to wreck it for you, ruin it for you,’ well, then he’s unbeatable; you can see it in his eyes. When he wants to look cool, he doesn’t play as well because he doesn’t have the same determination. For me, I adore those moments where he forgets himself and he puts on his, ‘OK, people like you more than me. And you know what? I’m going to bury you anyway.’”
Translated from the French by Mark Nixon.
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