Star Games Denies It Owes Fees, Berdych, Li Na, Sam Stosur, Lleyton Hewitt All To Play

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 3rd February 2014

Star Games Denies It Owes Fees, Berdych, Li Na, Sam Stosur, Lleyton Hewitt All To Play

epa03669611 Two tennis balls drop on the water covered court while the start of the Fedcup Tennis matches between Switzerland and Australia is delayed due to heavy rain in Chiasso, Switzerland, 20 April 2013. Switzerland will face Australia in the the FedCup World Group Play-offs 20 and 21 April. EPA/KARL MATHIS |

The former manager of Ivan Lendl is denying that his NY company Star Games owes any money to Hong Kong tennis authorities as an escalating commercial dispute threatens to wreck next month’s men’s and women’s exhibition in the former British colony.

Jerry Solomon says his firm owes zero dollars as a sanction fee from a similar 2013 event in the same early March period; the disputed amount is detailed in the Hong Kong press as a fee of $40,000.

“We don’t owe them, that has nothing to do with us and is something between the ITF and HKTA and I think they worked that all out,” Solomon told the South China Morning Post.

The global city’s top tennis official, Herbert Chow Siu-lung, president of the HKTA, says otherwise: “The ITF says their late payment to us was due to a late payment from Star Games. Well, we still haven’t received our $40,000, which is for last year.

“Once [and if] the ITF settles the bill, we will sit down with Jerry Solomon and find out what support he wants. If we have the manpower, we will support the sponsor. Unlike last year where they [ITF & Jerry Solomon] received our HKTA staff support for free, this time we will give them a quotation for services rendered,” says Chow.

Now the March, 2014, event featuring Li Na, Sam Stosur, Lleyton Hewitt and Tomas Berdych could well have to be staged in a tennis-inappropriate cycling venue as the local tennis body denies Star the use of a more suitable location.

If the HKTA cuts links with Star over the sticky issue the upcoming exho could be devastated at the box office in the worldwide financial and shipping centre which never sleeps and has much more on its collective mind than a bit of American-run hit-and-giggle.

The HKTA is reportedly asking the equivalent of $130,000 for services to be rendered at the upcoming exho. The one-night stand may have to use the velodrome, which will allow only 3,000 spectators, including 1,000 on temporary seating.

The more suitable AsiaWorld-Expo near the airport is already booked and the HKTA won’t allow its own venue of Victoria Park to be used due to a junior tournament to be played at the central city venue.

Topics: 10sballs, Lleyton Hewitt, Samantha Stosur, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, Tomas Berdych