"They say they have no money and waste it on this" - Kristina Mladenovic & Tara Moore slam WTA after controversial new logo

The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) recently took a significant rebranding initiative, introducing a new logo indicating the ‘new era’ for women's tennis. Women’s tennis players Kristina Mladenovic and Tara Moore expressed their disappointment regarding the new logo’s design and the unnecessary need to rework it, as well as spending tons of money on something that is not essential.

The updated brand identity notably removed the silhouette of a female tennis player in a serving motion, and the whole focus remains on the letters W, T, and A with new fonts and colours of green and white. The fonts became a bit bold and cursive than the previous logo’s letters, and there was also a subtle change in the design of the letter A.

However, this rebranding effort has seemingly not been well accepted in the tennis community. Professional tennis players Kristina Mladenovic and Tara Moore have publicly slammed the WTA for spending money on a new logo. Their critiques include questions of resource allocation when the organization is reportedly not able to fulfill some of the basic needs and real-world implications for players, and instead spending money on rebranding the logo.

Mladenovic, a former World No. 1 in doubles, expressed her disappointment through a post on X (formerly known as Twitter). She wrote:

“Wondering how you can come up with this? and who approves? Green and white? No tennis details? What does it represent? Previous logo was so much better. @WTA”

On which Tara Moore, a British tennis professional, pitched in with her thoughts on the new WTA logo, writing:

“I heard this “rebrand” costs 6 figures too.. they say they have no money but waste it on stuff like this”

Both the players' comments underscore a disconnect between the WTA's strategic decisions and the immediate concerns of its athletes.

Moore took a dig at the WTA and accused the organization for spending resources on something absolutely unnecessary while it complains of having insufficient funds.

This is a reminder of the challenges professional sports organizations face when it comes to building a brand versus addressing the actual demands and interests of players. It will be interesting to see how the WTA will balance these conflicting perspectives as it looks to move forward with its new identity and unite the sport of tennis.

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Kristina Mladenovic took a swipe at the US Open over its controversial decision of scheduling the mixed doubles matches at the time of qualifying rounds

Kristina Mladenovic talking at a press conference - Source: Getty

Earlier this month, the nine-time doubles Grand Slam champion, Kristina Mladenovic was seen expressing her frustration over the US Open’s decision to change the format and schedule of the mixed doubles category.

The US Open organization has decided to schedule mixed doubles along with the singles qualification rounds and downsize the draw from 32 to 16. Many have raised concerns that this significantly diminishes the prestige of the event and portrays it like some exhibition match rather than a Grand Slam tournament.

Concerning over the same issues, the former doubles World No. 1 shared her thoughts on X and wrote:

"Terribly shocking news! 👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻Doing that just to sell more money during first week of the event. Making it look like an exhibition for whoever wants to play! What about players playing singles Q that want/could with their doubles ranking play mixed?"

She even shed light on players who are participating in the singles qualification rounds and want to compete in the mixed doubles event, it will be impossible for them to do that, and they'll have to sacrifice one of the two things.

The 31-year-old has never shied away from raising her voice on the unreasonable things which take place in the tennis world. She recently earned a semifinal appearance at the Dubai Tennis Championship in the doubles category with her partner Zhang Shuai. They lost to Taylor Townsend and Katerina Siniakova, who were the top seeds of the tournament, in straight sets.