WTA and ATP Tour - Worthwhile breaks would be good
The WTA Finals in Shenzhen, but also the ATP Masters 1000 Tournament in Paris-Bercy were marked by the tasks of prominent participants. Once again a sign that the tournament calendar is too tight.
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit:
Nov 04, 2019, 01:16 pm
Tennis legend Billie Jean King, of course, has not forgotten a historical circumstance in addition to the obligatory congratulations for Ash Barty for the World Cup title. On Sunday, the founder of modern women's professional tennis tweeted that the largest price check in the history of the sport would now be handed over to a young Australian woman in Shenzhen. However, a certain classification of this process was missing. Because the gigantic sums that were distributed in this year's final tournament, come from Chinese pots, ultimately from government subsidy. Which expectations are associated with this inflationary development of the winner's checks and the prize money, on the one hand obvious, soft location marketing, dreams of a sporting event superpower, motivation of talent maybe.
On the other hand, the result of the efforts is rather sobering. In many tournaments in recent weeks in China, also once again at this World Cup tournament, many places remained free. The interest of the Chinese and Chinese was rather limited - apart from the Masters tournament in Shanghai, where the male elite to the celebrated in China Roger Federer opened. The Chinese market remains problematic for both tour organizations, despite all the efforts of recent years, despite the opening of various offices in the billion dollar. And this is also true: If you listen to players' circles, going to Asia is not very popular at all in autumn. The "Asian swing" is usually characterized by little playful brilliance, rather already by the flood of failures, retreats, also injury problems.
Italy as a future market for men
The WTA final was no exception, quite the contrary. Almost every day, the tournament caused stricken players to headlines of the unwelcome kind, the misery dragged through to the semifinals in which Belinda Bencic, one of the promoted women of the season, had to give up. By repeating the demand is not original, but also not untrue: Both players unions have to think about a moderate thinning of their tour calendar, especially about inserting real breaks in the season for all. Then the season could well be a week or two longer.
Of course, the fundamental question of how meaningful it actually is to host a World Cup final in China, even over the next ten years. The WTA was seldom choosy in her selection, she simply went to where most of the money waved - whether that was Qatar, Singapore, Turkey or now China. There was never a rousing mood, as has been observed recently and always at the European indoor events. The home markets of the new stars were almost never served in the recent past and now in the present, because in several Eastern European cities, the finale would be in very good hands.
It may be regrettable that the ATP finals will not take place in London after many successful years, but ATP has made a good and correct decision with Turin. For an Italian market that seems to have the perfect address thanks to a healthy tennis infrastructure, many tournaments at all levels, the already successful Junior World Championship (Next Gen Finals) and new protagonists like Matteo Berrettini or Jannik Sinner. Just as Germany was in times of Becker and Stich.