After their French Open fourth-round exits, both No. 2 seed Agnieszka Radwanska and No. 6 Simona Halep "complained firmly" about the tournament organizers’ decision to make them play through Paris drizzles "that made courts slippery and clay-caked tennis balls heavy." Radwanska: "I’m just so surprised and angry that we have to play in the rain. I mean, it’s not a $10,000 tournament. It’s a grand slam. How can you allow players to play in the rain?" Halep sounded a similar tone, noting it was "impossible to play," and said, "I have no words. To play tennis matches during the rain I think it’s a bit too much. The court was not good. The balls were completely wet. I didn’t feel safe" (HERALD SUN, 5/31).
WORTH IT: Organizers defended the HK$2,380 ($306) ticket price for grandstands at the HKT Hong Kong ePrix and "are confident they will be snapped up." The event "will feature 20 hours of entertainment at the Harbourfront" in Central on Oct. 8-9. Of the 6,000 grandstand tickets, 2,000 "went on sale on Tuesday for the Lung Wo Road site." The remainder of grandstand tickets "will become available later." Formula E Racing CEO Alan Fang said, "We consider the ticket price reasonable as this is a big international motor racing event. ... We are relying heavily on sponsorship deals to reduce the cost. Indeed, if we compare tickets for the Formula One event in Singapore, they charge much more than us at S$800 each ($580)" (SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 6/1).
ENTRY FEES: Supplementary entries for Saturday’s Investec Derby at Epsom "were added at Monday's penultimate declaration stage" at a cost of £75,000 ($108,000) each. The entries "were John Gosden’s Dante Stakes winner Wings of Desire, Godolphin’s Andre Fabre-trained Cloth of Stars and Ed Dunlop’s improving Red Verdon." The added cash "will make the season’s premier Classic the richest race ever run in Britain" with a purse of £1.5M ($2.2M) (London DAILY MAIL, 6/1).
