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December 2nd, 2008
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Open court

With limited resources, the ECM Open can't draw top talent

By František Bouc
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
May 2nd, 2007 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
An exhibition between former greats is the best promoters can offer this year, when top Czech players would prefer to compete in Rome.
Two Wimbledon champions are set to clash on the clay of Prague’s Štvanice tennis center this month during the ECM Open tennis tournament, Prague’s biggest tennis event of the year.
Heavy-hitting Croat Goran Ivanišević and Dutchman Richard Krajicek, who won at Wimbledon in 2001 and 1996, respectively, will be the main stars of the upcoming tournament May 7–13.
Photo by Henk Koster
ECM Open organizers hope 1996 Wimbledon winner Richard Krajicek will draw fans to Štvanice.
Rather than adding additional glamour to the tournament, the true mission of the two champs is to rescue the event’s image.
Ivanišević and Krajicek both retired from professional tennis a few years ago and now play in veteran competitions. In Prague, they will play each other in an exhibition singles match and in a doubles contest. It’s hoped their appearance will cover for the absence of top-level players in this year’s draw.
“Every year, we’re looking for some box-office draw to boost the tournament’s image,” said Vladislav Šavrda, director of the ECM Open. “The appearance of Ivanišević and Krajicek is a treat for tennis fans and also a marketing tool.”
Feet of clay
Attracting high-caliber players to Prague — other than retired stars — is clearly a mission impossible for Šavrda and his team. It’s all about money.
“It would be great if we could get some of the current champion players to come here, but frankly it’s not going to happen anytime soon,” Šavrda said.
Despite the Czech Republic’s rich tennis tradition, the dearth of wealthy sponsors caused the country to lose its top-level ATP Tour tournaments in the late 1990s. The ECM Open belongs to the lower-ranked ATP Challenger series, and, with a modest purse and few points toward the tour championship, it is simply not competitive.
The current ATP tournament system is dominated by 13 top events that are essential for players’ world rankings: the Grand Slams and the so-called Super 9 events.
While the prize money at top tourneys can exceed $12 million (250 million Kč), the ECM Open’s purse is a modest $100,000. That provides little incentive for top players.
Among the highest seeds in Prague will be the Czech players Jan Hernych, Jan Hájek and Robin Vik, who rank between 80th and 120th in the world.
Also preventing a better lineup is the open’s collision with a Super 9 event in Rome, Italy. Not even the top two Czech players, Tomáš Berdych and Radek Štěpánek, could ignore the Rome tournament.
Šavrda admitted that moving the ECM Open to a later date could score the tourney some better-ranked players. But the move would be expensive.
“The ATP timetable is crowded,” he said. “Theoretically, we could buy some later date from another tournament organizer, but it would cost at least half a million dollars.”
Likewise, lifting the tournament to a higher ATP Tour category is out of the question, Šavrda said.
“The prize money would then need to increase from the current $100,000 to at least $400,000, and the tournament’s current 20 million Kč budget would need to be beefed up 8 million to 11 million Kč,” Šavrda said.
Blame privatization
The last time Prague hosted star players was in 1998, when Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov, formerly the world’s top-ranked player, appeared on the Štvanice clay, and Andre Agassi made an appearance in Ostrava, north Moravia. At the time, Agassi was paid $200,000 — far more than organizers can afford to pay anyone these days.
“In the 1990s, securing sponsorship money for sports, and tennis in particular, was easier,” Šavrda said. “There were still state-owned companies willing to make contributions.”
“Today, tennis has become way too expensive for local companies,” added Ivo Kaderka, president of the Czech Tennis Association (ČTA).
With its limited resources, the ČTA decided to host low-ranked ATP tourneys, providing an easier gateway for Czechs looking to enter professional tennis, rather than a major event.
“We have about six ATP challengers and ATP futures tournaments here throughout the year, and it is quite beneficial for our young players,” Kaderka said.
As a result, the world’s top players now come to the country only through the Davis Cup team competition. In September, the Czechs will take on the Swiss team, led by the world’s No. 1 player, Roger Federer.

František Bouc can be reached at fbouc@praguepost.com


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