Three years after they were last held, Auckland's ASB Tennis Classic tournaments are set to return in 2023.
Barring a major change in the direction of the pandemic the popular WTA and ATP tournaments will be back, with Tennis Auckland CEO Rohan West heading to Miami tonight for a series of meetings with Tour officials and player agents as plans ramp up.
Speaking to NZME's Tennis Talk podcast on the eve of his departure, West confirmed the dates for the men's and women's tournaments and indicated they were close to appointing a tournament director.
"A number of really positive announcements by the government in the last month or so have given us a lot of confidence around our ability to stage in 2023. But also, the WTA and ATP have been extremely supportive in terms of doing everything that they can to ensure that we can stage them in January, right to the point where both of their boards have locked in our dates for next year," West told Tennis Talk.
The women's ASB Classic will be held from January 2-8 with qualifying on December 31 and New Year's Day. The men's ASB Classic will be held from January 9-14, concluding just before the Australian Open starts in Melbourne on January 16.
"We are really positive and looking forward to meeting all the key players in both organisations," West said.
While encouraging to know the tournaments are back on the radar, there is a huge amount of work to do and there's a sense Tennis Auckland and Tennis New Zealand are on the back foot.
Successful tournament director Karl Budge stepped down from the role after failing to convince the Government he could run the tournaments in a bubble in 2021. Budge has been consulting with Tennis Auckland but has no active role in player recruitment.
Usually by the time Indian Wells and Miami rolls around Budge would have already locked away a couple of his big targets and West is under no illusions as to the challenge Tennis Auckland faces to secure quality fields.
Appointing a tournament director has become a priority and West says they are well advanced, confirming they have headhunted for the role and have a shortlist of four candidates, two from overseas and two in New Zealand.
"The timelines for that are around the end of April. We're got a number of very good candidates that we're talking to already," West said.
"Part of my time over in Miami is about starting to develop those relationships with player agents and having those initial discussions around the fact that we are coming back. We do want to recreate the vibe, the feel of ASB Classic 2020 and really pick up the ball from where we left it in January 2020.
"We are looking at a mix of both domestic and international candidates. It's very interesting that there are a good number of New Zealanders who have got experience in this area, as well as obviously overseas people that know and love and have been to the ASB Classic and know what we're all about."
While he wouldn't discuss names, there are few New Zealanders who have experience running ATP and WTA tournaments. One obvious contender would be Brenda Perry who was women's tournament director in 2009 and 2010. Perry was co-tournament director at the WTA 1000 tournament in Wuhan in China in 2019, having also held WTA Board roles and Tour Supervisor roles. She is well connected and with Chinese Tour events suspended due to the Peng Shuai situation, Perry would fit the bill.
West confirmed the calendar would go back to a pre-pandemic situation where the women's ASB Classic would be held in the same week as the WTA 1000 Brisbane International, with the men's Classic competing with a tournament in Adelaide of the same 250 level.
West hopes to seek clarity in Miami as to whether a third event will compete with Brisbane and Auckland in the first week of the year. Pre-pandemic a WTA 500 tournament was held in the Chinese city of Shenzhen.
West insists he heads to Miami with a target list of top players and a strategy to secure them.
"We have a general high-level target list that we are working on. I've got a number of meetings locked in with player agents with players on that list already. I certainly don't expect to be coming back with contracts. That's not why I'm going, but it's around re-establishing those relationships, but also potentially getting some verbal commitment to go to the next step in terms of those contracts and getting those players locked in."
