More top 10s for Classic
The women’s ASB Classic has become a victim of its own success, but could change to become a higher ranked WTA tournament.
The Classic is an International level WTA tournament, which means it can only have one top 10 player in the field, this year being world No 3, Caroline Wozniacki.
The Brisbane tournament, which is the same week as the Classic, is a Premier tournament, meaning it can sign as many top 10 players as it wants.
The Shenzhen tournament this week is also an International tournament.
The Classic has become increasingly popular and done a good job at making it a tournament players want to come to.
But only being allowed to have one top 10 player makes it difficult for tournament director Karl Budge to assemble the field each year.
For the 2018 tournament, he signed Wozniacki last May during the French Open, when the Dane was ranked just outside the top 10.
However, a good fortnight at Roland Garros, where she made it to the quarterfinals, improved her ranking to six in the world straight afterwards.
That meant Budge couldn’t bring back Jelena Ostapenko or former champion Venus Williams as they both went into the top 10.
Ostapenko was a player Budge took a punt on early in her career, hoping to have a good relationship with her, so that she’d stay loyal to the tournament.
However, that all becomes meaningless once the player breaks into the top 10.
‘‘Jelena would be here if she wasn’t in the top 10,’’ Budge said.
That’s a prime example of our strategy over the last few years paying off.
‘‘On that scenario it’s probably paid off too well. So her sitting at No 7 in the world has meant that we couldn’t have her.
‘‘Jelena wanted to start her year in Auckland and we wanted her to start her year in Auckland.’’
However, while it’s pleasing the players want to come to New Zealand, it’s not so good to turn them away and Budge revealed he’s talking to the WTA about the Classic going up in status.
‘‘We’re having those conversations at the moment,’’ Budge said.
‘‘We’ve proven over the last five years that this is a tournament to be reckoned with, we’ve won best tournament four years in a row.
‘‘We’re constantly selling out and I’m not sure there are too many tournaments on the calendar where the women’s event has sold better than the men’s.
‘‘We’ll continue to have that conversation in Melbourne, we’ve got time to sit down with the tours and there is a lot up in the air on the structure of the tours at the moment.
‘‘We want to be a part of that conversation, to make sure Auckland is in the best position it possibly can be.’’
Budge says he doesn’t regret signing Wozniacki so early, even though when she made it into the top 10, it drastically altered his plans for 2018.
‘‘If I was presented with the opportunity to sign Caroline Wozniacki again in May, I think most tournament directors would jump at that,’’ he said.
‘‘But when you do that, that means you’ve got your top 10 player sorted, so it does change how you roll out the next few months.
‘‘Obviously it creates risks on whether I can do deals with other players who may go into that top 10 bracket.
I don’t think anyone saw Sloane [Stephens] coming back and winning the US Open, so those conversations changed pretty significantly when that happened.’’