Men's tennis was facing a major player revolt on Friday after failing to join the women's game in suspending all tournaments in China over the plight of Peng Shuai.
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and International Tennis Federation (ITF) were condemned for not following the lead of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), which carried out its threat to pull out of the country after being shown "insufficient evidence" Peng was safe.
Thursday's decision had piled pressure on the ATP and ITF to show solidarity with their sister organisation but they failed to do so, with the men's tour even arguing that a "global presence" gave it a better chance of having "a positive influence on society".
The statement by Andrea Gaudenzi, the ATP's chairman, was denounced and even mocked, with Tennys Sandgren – who had called for men's players to "back the ladies up" – posting on Twitter: "This is p--- #firegaudenzi."
Noah Rubin branded the statement "weak", Dustin Brown wrote "A Lot Of Words, But Not Really Saying Anything… Been The Standard Lately…", while Reilly Opelka sarcastically called it "POWERFUL".