WTA Tour Reportedly Considering Adding Tournaments Next Year
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WTA Tour May Add Tournament In
Ivanovic's Native Serbia |
The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour is "considering an option of adding one or two more tournaments to the existing calendar in 2009 and 2010," and Belgrade stands "considerable chances of getting a first ever WTA event," according to sources cited by Z. Kecman of Serbian newspaper BLIC. The prospective tournament "will not take the place" of the existing Generali Ladies Linz event in Linz, Austria, as previously suggested, but rather will "assume its own new spot in the expanded annual schedule." Linz Tournament Dir and WTA BOD member Peter-Michael Reichel said of adding a new tournament, "I can confirm we are currently in negotiations with Athens, Belgrade, Copenhagen and a couple of German cities." Switzerland-based DH Management, which reps WTAer Ana Ivanovic, reportedly "came up with the idea" for a tournament in Belgrade several months ago. The initial intention was to "purchase the licence from the Linz tournament," similar to how the family of ATP Tour player Novak Djokovic acquired the ATP Dutch Open tournament in October. But Linz organizers "do not want to give up their organization of the tennis event" (BLIC.rs, 12/8).
FOLLOW THE LEADER: ESPN.com's Peter Bodo wrote of the ATP Exec Chair & President position that Etienne de Villiers will vacate at the end of the year, "If you're hoping some new messiah will emerge to bring bliss to the ATP and tennis fans worldwide, I have news for you: It ain't gonna happen. That's because no hard-charging boy wonder (or corporate veteran) would want this job. As Etienne de Villiers learned, the ATP tribe is a restless one, constantly bickering and feuding." The ATP "could find a contemporary version of Pete Rozelle, hire him tomorrow, and still nothing much would come of it," because the game "exists in a perpetual state of gridlock" (ESPN.com, 12/8).
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