The WTA announced a new tournament, the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, which will take place at San Jose State "annually beginning" in '18, according to Martin Gallegos of the San Jose MERCURY NEWS. The new summer tournament "replaces the former Bank of the West Classic, which had been held at Stanford" since '71. San Jose State announced a five-year, minimum $1.5M deal with IMG that will see the company’s "rental fees fund the construction of a custom stadium court that will allow a capacity of 4,000 fans." Renovations to "locker rooms, a player’s lounge, and coaches’ offices are also part of the deal." The Silicon Valley Classic is the "opening tournament of a five-tournament series that will lead up to the U.S. Open Championship" (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 1/30).
COME TOGETHER: In N.Y., Ben Rothenberg noted among the WTA players at last week's Australian Open, there were concerns that they "would not be included" in discussions about a possible players union and that they currently had no leader like Novak Djokovic "fighting as passionately for their causes." Some "suggested a joint union would be a solution in an era where the biggest events are combined." Mirjana Lucic-Baroni said, "I’ve been calling for this for 20 years now and it doesn’t happen. The good thing and the problem is that it takes Djokovic to do that. And who’s going to do that for us? You can be as loud and try as much as you want, but the change is not going to happen unless everyone sits down and does it." Rothenberg noted the men have been "louder about complaints this decade." The 10-member WTA player council "does not have a president, and thus identifying a leader is tricky." Elena Vesnina said, "Right now, I don’t see anyone that strong like Billie Jean [King] was in her time. But I feel that something is changing now in the locker room" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/29).
TIME FOR A CHANGE? THE RINGER's Tumaini Carayol wrote the first thing to know about tennis in '18 is that it is a "conflict-riddled mess." Historically, the ITF, WTA, ATP and their "conflicting objectives have damned aspects of the sport to stagnancy." The "immovable pillars of the four Grand Slams limit the evolution of the ATP and WTA calendars, while the length of the WTA and ATP seasons suffocate the ITF’s Davis and Fed Cup team competitions." The discussion about the "unhealthy length of the tennis season, which runs from January until November, hasn’t changed in decades." However, players are "trying to shift the power balance of the sport." WTA CEO Steve Simon might just be the "most radical figure of all, a champion of short matches" (THERINGER.com, 1/27).
