Richard Palmer disappointed on Sharapova’s non-participation in ASB Classic 2012 – Tennis News
World No.5, Maria Sharapova, will not be returning to Auckland for the ASB Classic tournament next year as she is participating in the Brisbane tournament to start her 2012 season.
Sharapova played in Auckland this year and reached till the quarterfinals of the tournament but couldn’t move ahead as she was knocked-out by the Italian tennis ace Greta Arn who went on to clinch the ASB Classic title this year.
Greta Arn will not be returning to the arena to defend her title as she had some personal issues and Russian tennis ace is also not participating as she is participating in the upgraded tournament in Brisbane.
Tournament Director, Richard Palmer, was very disappointed of the fact that he couldn’t bring back the Russian tennis ace back to Auckland this year. Sharapova was paid a $130,000 appearance fee as well as $6500 in prize money,
this year.
Talking to the media representatives after the announcement of the list of players, he showed her despair about Sharapova’s non-participation in the tournament and said “She's only one player, albeit a very high profile player.
This year she chose to play here, next year she chose to play in Brisbane, and we wish her luck.”
Palmer has been able to grab some big names to the tournament that includes Venus Williams, Flavia Pennetta, Peng Shuai and Sabine Lisicki but he was disillusioned with the fact that he wasn’t able to bring back the fan favourite
to the arena.
He further added “The field will be more than acceptable. We're only allowed one top 10 anyway so if they all go to Brisbane we might be able to get more of the players just outside the top 10.''
The stipulation of just one player from top ten apparently makes it a pretty much straight forward event for the lone top 10 participant as she is the hot favourite to win the tournament but this year it was seen that Greta Arn
flabbergasted everyone with her guile and game play and same can be expected next year as well.
Tournament Director is getting ready to make some offers to the top 10 players but considering the fact that Brisbane is an elite tournament compared to Auckland, it will be a very difficult task for Palmer to convince anyone playing
ASB Classic. It will also cost him a lot as the participant from the top 10 will come with a huge price tag for participating in this tournament so the dilemma for the director continues.
Tags: