{"id":1993,"date":"2025-07-11T16:38:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T16:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/1993\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T16:38:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T16:38:05","slug":"biggest-joke-ive-ever-watched-in-professional-tennis-swift-backlash-after-billionaire-bill-ackmans-pro-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/1993\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Biggest joke I\u2019ve ever watched in professional tennis\u2019: Swift backlash after billionaire Bill Ackman\u2019s pro debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billionaire Bill Ackman and organizers of a tennis tournament have been strongly criticized by former grand slam champions and social media after the hedge fund manager made his professional tennis<\/a> debut, a match he ended up losing.<\/p>\n

Ackman, who has a prominent social media presence on X, played with three-time grand slam doubles champion Jack Sock<\/a> in the men\u2019s doubles at the Hall of Fame Open \u2013 an event sanctioned by tennis\u2019 world governing bodies, the ATP and the WTA, though CNN understands that the men\u2019s side of the event is governed by ATP rules \u2013 on Wednesday where they lost in straight sets 6-1, 7-5<\/a> to Omar Jasika and Bernard Tomic.<\/p>\n

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The 59-year-old and Sock were vastly outplayed by their Australian opponents, coming second in almost every statistical measure<\/a> in their match in Newport, Rhode Island.<\/p>\n

Ackman had been invited to play by Sock, who had received a wild card entry to the tournament, which is a WTA 125 event and also sits on the ATP Challenger Tour, a lower-tier men\u2019s tour focused at giving younger or aspiring players<\/a> an opportunity to progress their careers.<\/p>\n

Ackman \u2013 the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management and has a personal net worth of $9.5 billion according to Forbes<\/a> \u2013 said it was a dream come true to play pro tennis just once.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like maybe it\u2019s one and done,\u201d Ackman said afterwards, per The <\/a>New York Times<\/a>. \u201cBut I figured one, in my life, that seemed fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On social media, Ackman called<\/a> the whole experience \u201cvery humbling\u201d and detailed the \u201cstage fright\u201d he felt playing on a professional stage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can speak in front of an audience of a thousand people or in a TV studio on a broad range of topics without any preparation and without a twinge of fear, but yesterday I had my first real experience with stage fright,\u201d Ackman wrote on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found myself on a tennis court in a live streamed professional tournament with a few hundred in the crowd. Throughout the match, my wrist, arm and body literally froze with the expected negative outcomes. I had difficulty breathing, and it was not a fitness issue. It got a bit better as the match progressed, but I was not able to overcome it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ackman<\/p>\n

Ackman is an avid tennis fan. – Elsa\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Strong criticism<\/p>\n

While his appearance ticks off a lifetime goal for Ackman, his foray into professional tennis was met with derision from fans of the sport<\/a>, including journalists and former pros.<\/p>\n

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Former world No. 1 Andy Roddick was extremely critical, highlighting his own involvement in the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the organization\u2019s role in the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cBill Ackman, who\u2019s been a massive tennis fan, supporter, funds the PTPA (Professional Tennis Players Association)<\/a>, does the whole thing, wanted to play a pro tournament. So, there was obviously some exchange of something,\u201d the 2003 US Open winner said on his \u201c<\/a>Served\u201d podcast<\/a>. \u201cYou don\u2019t give a wild card to someone who 50 players at my club are better than.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a total miss. Now, the job of the Hall of Fame is to preserve and celebrate excellence in our sport. This was the biggest joke I\u2019ve ever watched in professional tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n

When contacted by CNN Sports<\/a>, the ATP pointed to its rule on wild cards, saying tournaments \u201cmay not receive compensation and players may not offer compensation in exchange for the awarding of a wild card.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A spokesperson for the International Tennis Hall of Fame told CNN Sports: \u201cTo be clear, in no way was money exchanged in return for the wild card. Per ATP rules, players may not receive compensation and players may not offer compensation in exchange for a wild card, and the Hall of Fame Open followed those rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

CNN Sports has contacted Pershing Square Capital Management to offer Ackman the right of reply. CNN Sports has also reached out to Sock and the WTA for comment.<\/p>\n

Roddick also called into question the effort levels of the players involved, apart from Ackman, saying that the match should be reviewed for its apparent lack of competitiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was exactly one person on that court trying as hard as they could,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you want to argue with me, go back and watch that video. And you can\u2019t tell me there was more than one person trying as hard as they could every point, or any point. It was a disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On social media, Ackman wrote<\/a> that the \u201ccompetition were clearly holding back\u201d which \u201cmade it even more difficult as I had too much time to think.\u201d<\/p>\n

CNN Sports has reached out to Jasika and Tomic via Tennis Australia for comment.<\/p>\n

18-time grand slam singles champion Martina Navratilova weighed in on Ackman\u2019s involvement, writing<\/a>: \u201cApparently you can buy yourself a wild card. Oh to have the confidence\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Tennis journalist Jon Wertheim also criticized the appearance of the hedge fund manager at the tournament, writing on X<\/a>: \u201cThis would\u2019ve been fine for a pro-am. For a sanctioned event with points and prize$? It was, at best, wildly inappropriate and lacking in integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billionaire Bill Ackman and organizers of a tennis tournament have been strongly criticized by former grand slam champions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[2576,2577,461,2575,2578,2570,2569,2573,2574,2572,108,99,428,2571,654],"class_list":["post-1993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-atp-challenger-tour","tag-bernard-tomic","tag-bill-ackman","tag-grand-slam-champions","tag-hedge-fund-manager","tag-international-tennis-hall-of-fame","tag-jack-sock","tag-omar-jasika","tag-pershing-square-capital-management","tag-professional-tennis","tag-social-media","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-hall-of-fame","tag-wta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}