That de Villiers tipped his own hand, and made such an arbitrary personal choice, before any sort of bidding guidelines were set, did not sit well with several European promoters. Many insiders feel that Etienne talks too much. And they don’t find it amusing when he mentions his former employer, Disney, in every other conversation; for example, many felt that his comparison of Roger Federer to the ‘Lion King’ in one post-final speech managed to be both self-aggrandizing and insulting to Federer. As someone snidely remarked, “The tour isn't Disneyland, and I'm not Goofy.”
On paper, Shanghai is a sufficiently viable site for an event of the magnitude of the Masters Cup. It's a huge metropolis of 18 million with a Gross Domestic Product of $114 billion (2005). The city itself is among the 40 largest economies in the world, surpassing some entire countries.
The Qi Zhong tennis center alone cost $200 million, a sign that lack of money won’t be a problem when it comes to keeping the year-end championship where it is. The larger problems are that Shanghai isn't exactly on the radar as a traditional tennis venue, and it's hard to grab media attention in the West for a variety of reasons, including broadcast times. And, at a time when the sport is struggling for exposure and credibility, the notion that the tour is just following the money - whether this is reality or mere perception - is a poisonous one.
The decision to embrace or deny Shanghai's desire to extend its contract to hold the Masters Cup for an additional year could determine whether or not there will be a dual-gender, 10-day Chinese event, penciled in at the moment to follow the US Open in 2009. In the long term, the ATP and WTA want to join forces to host a grand total of four combined tournaments: Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid (which would be held prior to Roland Garros), and - tentatively - China, with the venue alternating between Beijing and Shanghai.
Enter the Australian Open problem.
The Oz major is promoted by Tennis Australia and the ITF as “The Grand Slam of Asia/Pacific” –- a status that just wouldn’t make sense if the event was held in the wake of a big Asiatic tournament. The staging of an Asian mega-event in September or October could also upset many directors of the European indoor tournaments - as if they didn't already have enough to fret about.
The tension inside the ATP is such that Patrice Dominguez has been shunted off to the side, to be replaced on the ATP Board by former ATP vice-president Zelijko Franulovic. The reason: Dominguez was perceived to be a creature of Christian Bimes, the Roland Garros and Paris-Bercy boss, who's thought by many to be too aggressive in pursuing the exclusive interests of France, and himself. For in backing a plan to give Ion Tiriac what amounts to a two-week, Spring event in Madrid, Bimes/France could move Paris Bercy up by two weeks, to mid-October. This would ensure that more top players would take part.
Meanwhile, the ITF is considering a plan to protect events organized by its affiliates (the national associations, which run events like the Masters Series meetings in Rome and Hamburg, both of which could be threatened by a new, mega-event in Madrid); it seeks to create a specific, Endorsed by the ITF tag for certain tournaments. (Ed. note: Can you say "finger in the dike?" - Pete)
Affiliate-owned, traditional events, like Hamburg and Rome, are important to the health of the game. The national associations generate money to promote the sport in their own countries and attract new players to the game; this is something the ATP should do instead of obsessing over profit margins. The organizers of the Monte-Carlo event aren't thrilled either; They helped the ATP set up its European headquarters, and they offer a tax haven and home base for many Tour stars, and now they're concerned that the entire European clay-court circuit could be destabilized.
The situation is so chaotic that there have been hints that the the old, traditional clay court events might sue the ATP, or organize a grass-roots rebellion that takes down de Villiers.
Tiriac, unfazed, is taking the "money talks, BS walks" attitude. He's showing off his millions (in a public announcement in Madrid, he offered the WTA Tour a $5 million dollar event), and it's not like Madrid, the Spanish capital, is hedging its bets; right now, they're building a huge multi-purpose complex called La Caja Magica (The Magic Box) to the tune of $170 million, complete with all the facilities required to stage the combined event.
Neither Tiriac nor his tennis director/right-hand man, Gerard Tsobanian, showed up in Shanghai. But the scuttlebutt si that the Madrid mega-event will outshine every other clay court event held prior to Roland Garros in the spring of 2009. Another blinding absence in Shanghai was Christian Bimes: everyone thinks the French Tennis Federation president stayed away, on purpose, in order to avoid confrontation with his peers.
So, with Madrid a near lock for the 2009 calendar and the Chinese combined event in limbo, I left the party thinking the ATP’s scheduling puzzle would even confuse... Confucius.
-- Miguel Seabra
