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The WTA is trying to create playing opportunities for its players – especially in the wake of the cancellation of the US Open qualifying.
But already, Open Court has learned that one of the two 125K-level tournaments it had planned for the first week of the US Open has been cancelled.
The tournaments in Portschach, Austria and Prague, Czech Republic were announced only a week ago. But now, the Austrian event has been cancelled.
Both were supposed to have 64-player singles draws with no qualifying, and increased prize money (more than $1.5 million for the two instead of the usual eponymous total of $125,000 each indicated by the category). That purse was to be subsidized by the USTA, as part of its reparations for cancelling the US Open qualifying.
But … the Portschach event will not happen.
Slam-sized draw in Prague
As a result, the draw in Prague will be a Grand Slam-sized … 128 players – the same size as the singles draw at the US Open. And, as at Flushing Meadows, eight of the spots will go to wild cards.
You’d have to think they’ll need more than one club, at least for the first few rounds. So far, the International-level tournament in the same city this week appears to be going off safely and without a hitch. The added bonus is that top seed Simona Halep has reached the final there.
It was already a surprise that the Austrian city of Portschach would host an event of that size. Three weeks ago, it had cancelled a major ITF seniors event – the European Senior Championships – which was originally scheduled for June, then postponed, and ultimately cancelled.
What that means is that the players’ entry list for Portschach is being folded into the one for Prague. And the deadline has been pushed back to Monday.
The doubles draw will be 32 teams, with five teams able to sign in on site.
Huge number of matches
Because of the sheer size of the draws, the singles will start two days early, on Saturday, Aug. 29. Still, they will have to complete a Slam-sized draw in nine days. And we’ve seen this week during the regular WTA event that it is not immune to weather delays (not to mention there are no lights at that club).
The WTA event is being held at the TK Sparta Praha club. Next week’s big ATP Challenger event will take place at the I. Cesky Lawn-Tennis Klub, which is about three miles and perhaps a 12-minute drive away.
The tournament isn’t open to anyone who would be accepted into the main draw of the US Open. So it’s not an option for players, even those ranked outside No. 130 who could make New York but would prefer not to travel, to stay home in Europe and still have an opportunity to earn some money.
There is nothing available in North America – or even on hard courts at all – that week. So clay is it, for the moment. Unless you wanted to play a $25,000 ITF event in Portugal; that’s the only option.
As an aside, a player has already tested positive ahead of next week’s men’s Challenger in Prague – the first steps by the ATP side to return to action.
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If I was a rank and file member of the ATP I would be looking over to the WTA and concluding that Andrea Gaudenzi and company have done a lousy job of letting me earn a living. In the past month: WTA: Palermo, Prague, Lexington, Prague again with their 128 super. they have found a way to make it happen.
ATP: Nothing. They have NOT found a way to make it happen.
ATP couldn’t even get Washington going. Whatever the internal machinations were in Washington for the women, it looks like the WTA saw the writing on the wall and created Lexington. Regardless of how the future calendars shape out, over the last month it is WTA: Win …. ATP: Lose.
Regarding the proposed merger between the two, I say no; women, why let the ATP drag you down??
Since, as usual, your opinion is not based on any actual facts, I’m happy to enlighten you again.
“Whatever the internal machinations” is a big part of that story. Which you don’t seem privy to. so I guess it’s easy to have an opinion.
But I can state this with certainty, it wouldn’t be the ATP dragging the WTA down, in the unlikely event of a merger.
Announcing a 125k-level tournament, only to completely cancel it within a week (and not even announcing that yet, other than my story) and making all those players have to switch around their plans, and inevitably have to leave people out, is not exactly a brilliant outcome. It remains to be seen whether they can pull off a 128-draw, seven rounds, in NINE days. With the weather they had in Prague this week and the lack of lights at many of the clubs in that city. Not to mention how many things could go wrong with such a chaotic, last-minute organizational switch.
The ATP doesn’t decide whether a tournament can go ahead these days. The local health authorities do. And the men’s event in D.C. is a significantly larger undertaking than the much smaller women’s event. Given the TV rights revenue at the 500 level of tournaments, if they could have made it happen, they would have.
Also, you probably haven’t even been to the D.C. site or, at the least, seen the inner workings of the infrastructure. It’s tight and old and barely adequate at the best of times; to retrofit it to fulfil all of the health and safety protocols was pretty much undoable.
(FYI – there are two Challengers each of the next three weeks on the ATP side – including, you guessed it, one each the weeks of Aug. 22 and 29 in … Prague, at the top prize-money level. As well, there will be … THREE during the second week of the US Open. Other than this Prague event, there is literally almost nothing for the women. The only place they have to play this week is … one small, $25K ITF tournament in Portugal. For a couple thousand players on the rankings list.
As well, there likely won’t be any tournaments for the women after the French Open, if it goes ahead. Conversely, the ATP is hopeful to have a relatively full slate of tour events through to the London finals (if all goes well – who knows). They also have nine Challengers in September alone.
So I guess the moral of the story is probably to wait until it all shakes out.
I made that comment about the ATP dragging the WTA down a little bit tongue in cheek actually. Yes, all the info that you have dug up is noted… and great work like usual.
I remember your posts of years gone by of driving to Washington…. very cool. You would be a lot of fun to ride shotgun with on one of those trips, me thinks!! Anyway, you dig up (usually sooner) inside info about the tournaments and tours that never gets to the mainstream media sites, so that is great!!!
I get frustrated that sometimes current info about the women’s tour events is hard to come by. Mubadala for instance, you think they would update their site and say the event is off, no not a peep. And Washington for the women as well.. little info and transparency as well. Go US Open… go OpenCourt!!!!