Another Tournament Is Gone From The U.S.

Written by: Staff on 19th February 2013

Another Tournament Is Gone From The U.S.

epa02818218 The shadow of Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania in action against Roberta Vinci of Italy is seen on the clay during the final match in the singles competition of the Poli-Farbe Budapest Grand Prix WTA tennis tournament, 10 July 2011, in Budapest, Hungary. EPA/TIBOR ILLYES HUNGARY OUT |

The U.S. tennis community will now try and move ahead after the SAP Open in San Jose, slammed its doors shut on Sunday after 125 years. The longtime ATP event in Los Angeles also just folded its tents and sold itself to Bogota, Colombia, leaving California with just one men’s event – the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, which is a combined tourney.

ATP Board of Directors member Justin Gimelstob, who is now heading up an exhibition in Los Angeles that will take place on March 4, says that the US tennis community needs to be more proactive when it comes to pro tournaments. Twenty years ago there were six US men’s tournaments in February and March (San Francisco/San Jose, Memphis, Philadelphia, Scottsdale, Indian Wells and Miami ) and now there are only four – Memphis, Delray Beach, Indian Wells and Miami.

“Putting my US tennis fan and broadcaster hat on, America is a huge market and we need to make sure that the market is protected and incentivized,” Gimelstob told Reuters. “Putting my board of director’s hat on, it’s a difficult business model at this [smaller] ATP 250 level having these outlying tournaments. How do they get the top players, television and sponsors? It’s a bad cycle. Something needs to be done.”

Insiders say that there is no guarantee that the San Jose Sharks group, which also owns Memphis, will keep that event either as next year it becomes a 250 level tournament, which make it more difficult to recruit top flight players, and consequently fans.

“The fact that we are losing another event in California, it’s stunning to me we are allowing these things to happen,” said broadcaster Leif Shiras who worked the event for more than three decades. “I look at France — they hang on to their events. If one city’s event is not working they find another place for it to work and it’s a wonderful way to keep their players plugging into the highest levels of game. In terms of player development and exposure to highest levels of game, I think it’s the worst possible scenario for US.”

©Daily tennis news wire

Topics: Atp, BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, San Jose tennis news, Sap Open, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News