It is revealed in Shanghai that the ATP is planning to start new Masters Series event in Asia. Shanghai is among the most competitive bids. Mark Miles says that the ATP will not add new events but move one to Asia. Rome or Hamburg will possibly make way in the near future due to economic reasons. Masters Cup Shanghai has already been considered a perfect event. There are great chances that Shanghai will appear on the Super 9 list in the years to come, according to the interview in the media center at Masters Cup.
Wait, are you saying they will steal a claycourt Masters event in Europe and replace it with a hardcourt one in Asia? If that's true, I'd be furious. :fiery: Why not replace one of the North American ones on hard courts? There are too many of them as it is.
They have said. We know that the "folding stuff" is the key thing in it. If the European events can find real good sponsors to back them up, there won't be any problem. As you can notice, both Mercedez-Benz and Heineken are keen on the Chinese market, especially Shanghai. JPMorgan as well. All have very good relations with the ATP. And it is reasonable because there is no Masters events in such a big Asia. It is interesting you used "steal", but Madrid has stolen one, hasn't it? Looks like the U.S. events have strong economic background. I don't know. But one thing can be sure is this will not be settled recently, but it will soon, before the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The venue for this year's Masters Cup is temporary. It is an expo enter actually. So Shanghai doesn't have Masters-fit site yet. But believe the Shanghai speed. They will build one if they want.
When I said steal I was referring to clay court Masters. They are in minority as it is. Madrid replaced Stuttgard didn't it? That's still in Europe.
I have nothing against a Masters in Asia. I think it's a great idea. I just think it would be a disgrace and completely unfair if there were even less Masters on clay. There's already an overwhelming bias towards hard courts.
Put a masters series in Asia for sure, there is a great number of fans there, as clearly demonstrated by the attendance of the events that they do have.
But don't take out one of the clay ones.
There are enough players who pad their rankings with hard court points and suck on clay as it is.
yah.. meybe they should take Cincinnati, no? Indian Wells is really interesting(in the desert of California, first masters series of the year) and Miami is a classic one.. plus, both of them are in 2 weeks.. Toronto/Montreal is the only ATP tournament in Canada, so I think it would be a VERY bad idea to replace it.. but Cincinnati, is there something THAT special in it? I also think it would be a bad idea to replace the clay masters!! I adore them!!
I was thinking Cincinatti too. In my eyes it's the most expendable. But there is a huge problem. Who would fly halfway across the world just before the US Open in the middle of the US hardcourt season. And it's even worse with the other option, if Hamburg was to go. Can you imagine interrupting the European clay court season just before RG to go to Shanghai? It makes absolutely no sense, and I doubt many players would want to do that. The only reasonable option is to have it after all the slams. The players have it tough already, let's not make their lives even more difficult.
It's obvious they would change the calendar, they wouldn't place it in the middle of the claycourt season or before the US Open. And answering the question that who would play there, the fact is that the players HAVE to play it as it's a TMS, so no chance of skipping it...
I'd say too that Hamburg is the most logical choice for the ATP to delete as I always thought that 3 TMS the previous month and a half to Roland Garros is too much and Rome no way is going to move
Heineken has signed a 5-or-6-year contract with Shanghai. So will the Shanghai event be called Heineken Masters Shanghai. But I'd say this couldn't be true until 2004 or 2005.
oh, but taking away the clay masters is not good like Layla said. i think they would also reschedule the whole thing if Shanghai were to host a masters series
A masters in Brazil or Argentina would be a great idea, because there are many great clay players(GUGA, Canas, Gaudio, etc)!!
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