ATP Blatantly Objectifies Women In NextGen Finals Draw in Milan

The NextGen ATP Finals – a year ending tournament meant to give the young and upcoming players a platform similar to the ATP Finals in London. The event which has the tagline ‘The Future is Now’ though has got off to an unpleasant start, even before a serve has landed across the net.

The draw for this round robin tournament was held in Milan, but it was anything but the normal process where a player or a celebrity would pick out numbers to start with. The draw for the first ever edition of the tournament was different.

The process of making the two groups needed the players to choose models who would then unveil which group they were in. The models had letters A or B hidden somewhere on their bodies which would be known after they had been picked.

In the much spoken about ceremony, the top two seeds Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov were required to walk down the catwalk with two models who each carried their respective group letters. They would be followed by the next seeds who were asked to pick between two models. Once a decision was made, she would catwalk him down the ramp and provocatively reveal the hidden letter to indicate which group he’d play in. The other seed would then be escorted by the other model who had not been chosen.

All of this was then followed by inappropriate dancing, gloves were made to be removed by player’s teeth and many more cringe worthy moments that raises a question about the sense of the draw.

This was an event featuring the best eight tennis players between the ages 18-21 and was co-organised by the Italian Olympic Committee and Italian Tennis Federation with a focus on encouraging the youth.

But, the event in what can be considered a bid to match theme of NextGen and the fashion capital of the world Milan travelled back in time and objectified women with sexist and antiquated behavior.

The concept of equality in sport, and especially in tennis has been extremely relevant and well discussed in the modern era. People world over have taken a stand on matters such as this, and given that, this draw ceremony is anything but acceptable.