{"id":267716,"date":"2025-11-07T12:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T12:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/267716\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T12:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T12:16:09","slug":"17-time-grand-slam-champion-calls-out-tennis-tournaments-for-doing-a-terrible-job-at-looking-after-its-legends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/267716\/","title":{"rendered":"17-time Grand Slam champion calls out tennis tournaments for doing a ‘terrible job’ at looking after its legends"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Follow us on Google Discover <\/a> <\/p>\n

Gigi Fernandez has called out the Grand Slams for their treatment of former players, and she has even revealed her own examples.<\/p>\n

Fernandez reached a career-high singles ranking of world number 17, but her greatest success came on the doubles court.<\/p>\n

The Puerto Rico-born player, who represented the USA, won 17 Grand Slam doubles, two Olympic<\/a> gold medals and was also world number one for 80 weeks in her decorated career.<\/p>\n

Fernandez retired in 1997 and was subsequently inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame 13 years later, but she has criticised the way that she has seen former players treated.<\/p>\n

\"GigiPhoto by Joe Buglewicz\/Getty Images for International Tennis Hall of FameGigi Fernandez criticises tennis for how it treats its legends once they retire<\/p>\n

Fernandez has been speaking on the Inside-In podcast about her current passions and life after tennis, and very early on in the episode she spoke out against the way Grand Slams treat their former players.<\/p>\n

The now 61-year-old explained how different Grand Slams treat players, and Fernandez also spoke about the first time she returned to the US Open<\/a> after retiring, before giving the major tournaments advice as to what she thinks needs improving.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, when you retire from tennis, like I think tennis\u2026I mean this might be controversial, but I think that tennis does a terrible job of welcoming back its past champions,\u201d claimed Fernandez. \u201cLike once you leave the game, you\u2019re kind of forgotten and off you go. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re like me, you end up getting voted into the Hall of Fame, then I think you\u2019re back into good graces. But that\u2019s one of my missions in the Hall of Fame is to like change that, you know, and like to give you an example, the first time I went to the US Open and I was not a player, a player guest, and I had to go to the bathroom. I had to go stand in line and outside Court 7 bleachers and go. And this is four years after I retired, right, so I was still recognisable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fernandez added, \u201c\u2026It\u2019s a problem though, it really is, because there\u2019s only, you know, there\u2019s only 80 living Hall of Famers, that\u2019s it and probably 30 don\u2019t travel. They\u2019re too old or not, you know, sort of not in space where they can travel. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, you know, I\u2019ve had a beef where they run Slams for 15 years about having a Hall of Famer badge. There should be a Hall of Famer badge and the Hall of Famer, because the problem also too, if you think of a Hall of Famer, it\u2019s like if you win the singles at whatever event, you have carte blanche, like you win Wimbledon. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, Michael C[hang] goes back to Wimbledon, he\u2019s a Grand Slam champion, obviously won Wimbledon, carte blanche. He goes to the US Open, he has no access, French Open no access, Australian Open. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrench Open just gave us access. French Open just gave all past players access to the president\u2019s suite. So now I feel like I can go back to the French Open and enjoy myself, you basically stop going to these tournaments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who will be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame next year?<\/p>\n

The International Tennis Hall of Fame ceremony takes place every year, and sees both players and journalists being honoured for their achievements.<\/p>\n

This year saw five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova inducted into the Hall of Fame<\/a>, alongside the Bryan brothers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The nominees for 2026 have also been announced, with the Player Category featuring none other than 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer<\/a>, former world number one Svetlana Kuznetsova and 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alongside experts and journalists, fans will be available to vote for their pick to be inducted, but a former top 30 player believes Del Potro should not be in the Tennis Hall of Fame<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While in the Contributor Category, former WTA<\/a> player turned broadcaster Mary Carillo and former USTA Executive Director Marshall Happer are the two nominees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover Gigi Fernandez has called out the Grand Slams for their treatment of former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,123196,82,593,4306],"class_list":{"0":"post-267716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-gigi-fernandez","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-wta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}