Future looks bright for Soweto Open
TENNIS SA ’ s CEO Ian Smith is confident the Soweto Open will survive another year.
“We ’ ve got to go and see the minister of sport now and the director-general,” Smith said yesterday.
“They were very supportive of us having the tournament this year. They helped us get it back. And the City of Johannesburg will also be involved in our negotiations. ”
The tennis tournament was called off last year when the Johannesburg City Council pulled its sponsorship due to financial constraints. But last week saw the return of the Soweto Open to the Arthur Ashe Tennis Complex in Jabavu, where Canada ’ s Vasek Pospisil was crowned men ’ s singles champion on Saturday.
Smith said it was now up to TSA, government and corporate South Africa to ensure the future of the tournament, which was hailed as an unqualified success by the sport ’ s international governing body, the ATP.
“We ’ ve got to go to corporate South Africa now to see if they will partner with us going forward. The SABC ’ s live coverage has given us great mileage and they have also said they want to try and help us going forward, ” Smith said.
“I think that, and the great media coverage we ’ ve had in the last week, will catapult us to the next level and that will get corporate South Africa together with government and the city to put on the event for 2014 and beyond.”
Despite businesses refusing to get involved last year, Smith said he remained confident.
“I think you ’ ve always got to be positive. Everybody is struggling to find cash worldwide – and especially in South Africa. “We ’ ve got a smallish economy and the big sports have all the sponsorship money thrown at them. But I think with tennis in South Africa being thrown on the platform as it was in the last week and this week with the ladies event, I ’ m pretty sure that there will be some South African companies that will come in to partner us.”
Smith emphasised the tournament ’ s importance in building a legacy for tennis in the area. –