Another ATP australian tournament?

[Roobs321]

i think we should push for another australian tournament. Currently we have Brisbane, Sydney & the Australian Open, plus Davis Cup ties, Hopman Cup, etc.

I know maybe we should put the dollars into grassroots and developing superstars, but from aus open on, its pretty barren as far as attending tennis is concerned.

I think mid-to-late in the year we should push for a masters series or 500 tournament. Maybe change Kooyong into an actual tournament. Maybe give a masters to Perth.
It could detract from the exclusive 'summer of tennis' notion, but we could do better.
But yeah, bring Perth, Canberra or Kooyong in post-Wimbledon. Or if they start to put money into some serious development, the Gold Coast could work as a masters series imo.(as an ATP, not WTA)

 

[matt_897]

There's no room for it on the calendar, there already is enough tournaments, wouldn't even eb a consideration, the summer of tennis is successful enough. I always found it strange they have 2 Asian swings on tour, doesn't really make a lot of sense.

 

[that_dood]

Too much money else where in and we already have enough tournaments in summer and once the Aus Open finishes they move on to other parts of the world. Would be meaningless to come back down under for one tournament.

 

[Roobs321]

tournaments occasionally come and go, like, say, Johannesburg, and many tournaments have fallen away over the years. Sooner or later there will be an opportunity. The calender is malleable.

But maybe a 5-10 year plan to establish a Masters Series on the Gold Coast would be good. You could move Bangkok back one week to be with Metz & Bucharest, the tournaments that follow the US. Then hold the Gold Coast alone the next week as a masters series around the time of the AFL/NRL Grand Final. Have Tokyo & Beijing the next week. Then shangai masters.

So sort of a prelude masters to shangai. If we want to embrace ourselves as pasrt of teh asia-pacific region, here's a step towards it.

 

[red+black]

Given that we have 1 of 4 grand slams, we can't really be asking for anything else.

 

[matt_897]

Why on earth would we get a '1000' event (the new name for Masters Series) here, already have a slam and considering our population and our talent right now, it's not a consideration. there's already enough places trying to get a '1000' status, with Hamburg losing their status for this season and Monte Carlo almost losing it as well.

I still think they should have the full asian swing in feb-early march and have that Shanghai '100 event in late Feb. Is weather a factor? In my view, it would eb able to cut a few weeks off the calendar.

 

[Roobs321]

Fair enough, but regarding our country's history in the game, and the fact we turn up to events in droves, why not?

Brisbane is borderline, whilst Sydney is so-so. Aus open. Then what. We have made what 4 Davis Cup finals in the last 10 years, including winning two. The players will come with time, whilst Hewitt, and the retired rafter & the woodies are still fresh in our minds. We also have many top coaches around the international scene.

The Masters Cup was held at places like Lisbon & SYDNEY, basically i think we deserve another tournament throughout the season. Maybe even a grass lead-up to wimbledon, though personally i believe those few tournaments are fine as they are geographically.

Just ive been a die-hard follower for over a decade now, and the fact we basically have no tennis here for 11 months is wrong. If only we had some world renowned academy that could pull the youngsters to here, though i highly doubt it.

 

[Drummond]

It’s very disappointing that once the Australian Open is finished, that’s it for the year as far as tennis in Australia is concerned. However we are extremely lucky, well not lucky, but fortunate to be able to have a Grand Slam when there are so many countries desperate to poach it from us.

Our summer of tennis is pretty good though. While only the top players last until the end of the month, the fact is most of the tour are in Australia for the first 3 weeks of the year, that’s pretty significant. The top players may spend an entire month in Australia, depending on their schedule. We have two combined events, the Medibank International in Sydney and the new Gold Coast tournament. On top of that Hobart has a successful formerly Tier IV tournament which often hosts some of the up and coming players. In Perth there’s the Hopman Cup and while it might be dwindling in stature, it’s still prominent and gets the season unofficially underway. I’m disappointed there’s no longer a tournament in Adelaide and I don’t care for the new exhibition format they’ve introduced.

As for the possibility of tournaments sometime else in the year, unfortunately not going to happen as much as I would like it to. No doubt tennis in this country suffers as a result of having an 11 month absence in between tournaments but these days it’s just not feasible to have another event at some other stage. The calendar is loaded enough as it is and the travel to Australia is massive, not enough to justify another trip out here when we already have a Grand Slam.