Zurich : Roger Federer believes lessons should be learned from how the events unravelled in the Justin Gimelstob controversy and is happy that the American has stepped down from his role on the ATP board.
Gimelstob had plead no contest to a felony assault, reduced to a misdemeanour, after attacking venture capitalist and an old friend Randall Kaplan on Halloween.
The former tennis player, also the coach of America’s John Isner, was sentenced to three years of probation, and has been ordered to 60 days of community service and complete 52 weeks of anger management classes.
A key figure in tennis, Gimelstob has his hands in multiple pies in the sport. He was believed to be a key factor behind the non-renewal of ATP CEO Chris Kermode’s contract beyond 2019.
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Now that Gimelstob has vacated his board seat, Federer and others believe the decision on Kermode’s fate should be reversed. But the Swiss admitted it may not be that easy.
“I don’t know exactly the process, when the votes are happening, when the new CEO, all this stuff gets decided. But anyway should maybe be put back in the mix,” Federer told reporters at the Madrid Open on Sunday.
“But then again I don’t know if he would want to be after everything that happened. Sometimes when these things happen, it is like ‘Okay, I had a good run, and it’s okay to go’.”
The silence from big players on the men’s tennis circuit, following news of Gimelstob’s sentencing was seen as deafening, with only Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka calling for his removal from the board before the American made the call himself.
“I think it’s definitely the right move by Justin. He needs to go back and figure things out. There is no doubt about that. And the Tour needs to keep moving forward in these challenging times and important times right now,” said Federer.
“I was speaking also to some of the players on the Council to get a feel where they were standing when everything was brewing and I’m happy that the decision was taken by Justin and that now we can move forward and really like learn from what had happened also.”
