Under increasing pressure from current and former players, Justin Gimelstob stepped down from ATP board of directors effective immediately.

Gimelstob, a former ATP Tour player, coach and tennis commentator, was arrested in November for an attack on Oct. 31 in Los Angeles on Randall Kaplan, a venture capitalist.

The ATP board voted not to remove Gimelstob in December 2018, but the calls for his resignation grew louder after last week’s court hearing where Gimelstob pleaded no contest to a felony battery charge that the presiding judge Upinder S. Kalra reduced to a misdemeanor. Gimelstob was sentenced to three years’ probation and 60 days of community labor, and ordered to complete 52 weeks of anger management instruction.

Gimelstob said: “I’m stepping down because my job is to work on the sport’s behalf and the players’ behalf, and in my situation I’ve become too much of a distraction and a liability. I take responsibility for that, and I take responsibility for the mistakes I made Halloween night.”

Andy Murray, Stan Warwinka and several other current and former players had called for Gimelstob to step down.

Brad Gilbert and Tim Moyette have announced that they will run for Gimelstob’s seat. The election is set for May 14 in Rome.

Dominic Thiem defeated Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 6-0 in Sunday’s Barcelona Open final.  Austrian Thiem had earlier sent home Rafael Nadal 6-4 6-4 in the semis.

Thiem is looking strong ahead of the French Open.  Perennial favorite Rafael Nadal has not won two clay court tournaments back to back and is looking shaky on his favorite surface.

Thiem is the first Austrian winner in Barcelona since Thomas Muster.  Muster had won the tournament in 1995 and 1996.

“Winning this means a lot to me because it’s such a traditional and special tournament,” Thiem said. “Only great players have won here. Rafa has won it 11 times and it means a lot that Muster won it twice. It’s a big moment for me.”

“A title like this always gives you a lot of confidence, so I’ll be in a good mood going into Madrid,” Thiem said. “But the special thing about tennis is that I’ll start from zero in Madrid. All the guys there are really strong, so I’ll need to be ready from the first point.”