Megan Moulton-Levy Blogs About Casting Couch in Dubai; Lansdorp Decries "Enormous" Cheating in Junior Tennis
This isn't one of those days when tennis is going to be shown in its most favorable light. A couple of months ago, I mentioned that Megan Moulton-Levy, the former college star at William & Mary, was maintaining a blog chronicling her adventures on the Women's ITF circuit. Always funny and candid, Moulton-Levy's entries centered around her own game and the internal struggles she coped with as a new professional. That was before she traveled to Dubai and India last month, where the culture shock was profound, and gains equal footing with her tennis as a topic of conversation. In her post on Dubai, she reveals that her traveling companion Audra Cohen, the 2007 NCAA champion, had been singled out by the "boss," the owner of the resort where the Dubai tournament is held. Every day he would invite different girls from the tournament to come and play with him. After our tennis match he asked us to join him for dinner. Again at the time the only thing we knew about him was that he owned the hotel. My initial thought was what an honor and he must be such a kind gentlemen—which in some respects he is. Dinner consisted of a group of 10-15 other people who I will call his entourage. By his request Audra sat next to him and he spoke to her throughout the whole dinner.
Moulton-Levy goes on to add:
Now let’s pause. What would you do if a billionaire offered to ensure that your dreams would come true and it would all be paid for only if you were to be his girlfriend? The next morning this is exactly what he proposed to Audra! The word around the street was that this was the tournament to come to if you were willing to sleep with someone of high rank for one year of an all expense paid sponsorship. Upon doing more investigation we realized that this is not uncommon at all. “The boss” often made these kinds of propositions, and for his chosen few he gives them a gift—a bag with a tiffany’s pen and a necklace. I only received one because I was rolling with Audra.
Moulton-Levy's experience in India was of a different variety, and not just because she reached the doubles final and singles semfinals. She spares no details of the shopping experience that went awry despite her preparation, which is only funny in retrospect, I'm sure.
So for any juniors or college players looking to join the tour, this is required reading, and you couldn't ask for a better guide to that world.
Moulton-Levy is from Monroe, Michigan and her local newspaper the Monroe News published this story about her life on the tour(minus the Dubai casting couch, of course) a couple of days ago. For Moulton-Levy's recent results, visit her player record at the ITF Women's Circuit site.
Bob Larson's Tennis News contained a link to legendary coach Robert Lansdorp's denunciation of the prevalence of cheating in junior tennis and the responsibility of the USTA to do something about it. Any of us who attend tournaments regularly know that there is nothing far-fetched about his examples, and can cite our own horror stories. I couldn't agree more that the USTA needs to insist on an adequate number of officials at every tournament, and I think they should pay those officials from a separate fund that is earmarked from the entry fee. In fact, there are very few parents who wouldn't pay something extra if they could designate the amount for on-court officials.
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