Strong Dubai Field May Be Suffocating Memphis and Monterrey

Written by: Staff on 22nd February 2012

Strong Dubai Field May Be Suffocating Memphis and Monterrey

Serena Williams of the United States her nails painted and her legs taped as she serves in her fourth round match against Ekaterina Makarova of Russia at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 23 January 2012. Makarova won in two sets. EPA/BARBARA WALTON |

The Premier-level WTA tournament Dubai is offering $2 million in prize money and a lot more in appearance fees, which puts the WTA International Series tournaments in Memphis and Monterrey, Mexico in tough spots.

Dubai’s last acceptance was Petra Cetkovska at No. 33 in a 28-draw and before it was hit with five injury pullouts, the tournament was to feature six of the top 10. Clearly, Dubai pulls in such a standout field because Dubai Duty Free is a big WTA sponsor and because the tournaments’ owners have very deep pockets, but that does not mean that it’s healthy for the sport to have two International Series events pushed aside, because both are still attempting to serve markets that have tennis appetites.

However, with no name players in either draw, it is nearly impossible to attract a lot of fans.

Only in its third year, Monterey threw a fair sum at 13-time major winner Serena Williams and adorned their tournament poster with her image, but then last weekend she pulled out with an ankle injury. So now, Monterrey only features three top 50 players; top seed and No. 24 Roberta Vinci, No 35 Sara Errani and No. 49 Sorana Cirstea.

Memphis only had two players in the top 50: No. 32 Nadia Petrova (who lost her opening match) and No. 44 Ksenia Pervak. It’s last direct acceptance in to its 32 draw was Mirjana Lucic. who is ranked No. 130.

Even the qualifying for Dubai has a better draw than either Monterrey or Memphis, with its eight seeds all ranked within the top 50, lead by No. 33 Jie Zheng. The four qualifiers earned $4,842 just to qualify and received 20 WTA points. Contrast that with Monterrey and Memphis, where first round main draw winners only earn $2,950, but grab 30 points for the victory.

Memphis is in a curious place: it runs concurrently with the more established ATP 500 tournament, the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships. However, the WTA event lost its sponsor, Cellular South, last year and could not find a new one. It is now called the Memphis International.

The previous owners of the Memphis tournament bought it from Oklahoma City in 2002, and it has had it share of notable champions including Victoria Azarenka, Venus Williams, Lindsay Davenport, and Maria Sharapova, a few of whom played before their primes. Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova also played there, as did Caroline Wozniacki.

In 2008, Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment, which owns the San Jose’s SAP Open, the NHL Sharks as well as the arena that the play in bought the Memphis tournament, as well as the historic Racquet Club On Memphis itself.

SAP Open tournament director Bill Rapp, a former teaching pro, led the charge to purchase the event and club and since that time, has been constructing two tournament deals with men’s players such as Andy Roddick, Milos Raonic (both of whom are sponsored by SAP) and Gael Monfils.

Rapp hired Peter Lebedevs to specifically run Memphis, and the tournament director recently told the Memphis Commercial Appeal that they worked hard at trying to find a company to replace Cellular South. but in the current economy “it’s just a difficult position, difficult time.”

Lebedevs added a title sponsor would pay under $500,000 and also mentioned that they are paying appearance fees to top players. Of the current field, it’s hard to find any player outside of former top-fiver Petrova they may have thought was worth paying a guarantee to.

Regions Morgan Keegan men’s sponsorship of the men’s tournament is renewable annually, so it’s possible the tournament might look for an umbrella sponsor for both events in 2013.

But if they cannot find a sponsor for the women’s tournament, don’t be surprised if they cut it loose because it’s Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment’s fiscal policy not to lose money.