Jessica Pegula rallies behind Victoria Azarenka-led player council amidst the Fiona Ferro sexual assault row
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Jessica Pegula and Victoria Azarenka
A few days back, Fiona Ferro took the tennis community by shock when she revealed she was sexually assaulted and allegedly raped by her former coach Pierre Bouteyre. Ever since then, all major tennis bodies have extended their support to her and have lodged an investigation into the matter.
This incident has sparked a huge debate among fellow players regarding the safety of women’s tennis players. Many contemporary players have stood up for Ferro and have spoken about the hardships that women face. After her fourth-round win at the US Open, American No.1 Jessica Pegula has put in light how Victoria Azarenka-led WTA Players’ Council is always working to ensure the safety of younger players.
The Players’ Council is a body that advocates anything and everything that is in the players’ interest. It consists of eight players, which include Victoria Azarenka, Sloane Stephens, Donna Vekic, Johanna Konta, Kristina Mladenovic, Magda Linette, Gabriela Dabrowski, and Christina McHale.
Pegula said that the players’ council wants to protect everyone as much as possible and with Azarenka, who has so much experience on the tour, the council is properly functional.
“Obviously we represent the players and we want to protect everyone as much as possible. I think someone like Vika [Azarenka] who has had so much experience and been on tour for so long she can definitely attest to maybe when she sees something that’s not right or weird behavior or something like that,” she said.
“I think from a player council point of view, we just want to put emphasis on that and want to put emphasis on what situations aren’t right, has someone talked to this girl, to this coach? Does someone want to explain X, Y, Z, or why the situation looks so weird? I heard from a couple of girls this happened,” she added.
Jessica Pegula on how things are starting to get better for the younger players now
Pegula also said that things are much better now as compared to 20 years ago for female players because now they have more ways to speak up about injustice.
“I think shining a light on it earlier nowadays is much easier to do than it was maybe 20 years ago when things weren’t as talked about and wasn’t as open about things. I think it’s a lot of little things about doing that. And we’re very hopeful about that on the player council, and I think having experienced players, I think all of us are a little older as well so we, I think, get that protective mindset of seeing all the young girls come up and wanting to make sure they are protected in the best way,” she said.
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Lakshya Chopra
(2595 Articles Published)