Diminishing crowd numbers, together with the absence of "crowd-pulling star players and an outdated facility," has seen the "once-illustrious" Sydney Int'l diminished to a "shadow of its former self," according to Michael Chammas of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Interest in tennis "is at an all-time high in Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth." At the Hopman Cup in Perth and the Brisbane Int'l, total crowd figures "have been hovering on either side of the 100,000 mark for the past few years." But in Sydney, attendance figures have dropped by close to 37% since '12, "with just over 56,000 attending last year's tournament, which included Australians Bernard Tomic, Nick Kyrgios and Sam Stosur." The woes of the Sydney Int'l "have been exacerbated by the withdrawals of top 10 players Angelique Kerber, Agnieszka Radwanska and defending champion Petra Kvitova -- three of the tournament's top four seeds on the women's side of the draw." The empty seats inside Ken Rosewall Arena, seen in the background of TV screens around the country, "tell the story." Daily crowd figures "were unable to be obtained when requested from Tennis NSW," but overall figures for the tournament were sourced that show a "rapid decrease" in crowd attendance since '12. A crowd of 89,924 piled into Olympic Park for the Sydney Int'l in '12, with crowds dropping to 78,393, 63,837 and 56,301 in the following three years "despite a men's final record of 10,891 last year" (SMH, 1/12).
