Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Bad news for women's tennis

The German Open, a major stop on the European clay court tour, has been cancelled. The Qatar Federation says it no longer wants to operate the Berlin tournament and wishes to sell the membership back to the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. A Tier I event under the pre-2009 classification system, the German Open was re-classified as a "premier event" for this year. It had also been pushed back two weeks from its regular May schedule. There is speculation that the event has been cancelled because it could not attract enough top players so soon before the French Open.

The German Open and the Italian Open, for those of us who love clay court tennis, are two of the biggest tennis events of the year, and losing Berlin is a major blow to women's clay court tennis. Last year's German Open was especially exciting because of the one-woman thrill show put on by 2008 champion Dinara Safina.

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