WHILE the Philippine Tennis Association (PHILTA) is thrilled about reviews that it can host a higher-level WTA tournament, the federation warned that bringing in a WTA 250 event to the country is easier said than done.
Philta secretary general John Rey Tiangco on Saturday said a WTA event that ranks 250 or higher entails another round of negotiations with a different entity since the franchise for such tournaments isn’t owned by the WTA.
“Of course, people want a bigger one, want a better one. That’s expected. But that’s a different process,” said Tiangco after the staging of the WTA 125 Philippine Women’s Open, the first of its kind in the country.
READ WTA official says Philippines ready to host a 250 event
“Because ang 125, actually the franchise, you get directly from WTA. But the 250s, WTA doesn’t offer 250, 500, 1000 anymore. It’s owned by a private entity. So you’ll have to deal with them. It’s either you lease the franchise or buy it. So you’ll have to negotiate,” said Tiangco.
The WTA 125 is the second-tier among the levels of women’s tennis tournaments in the world behind the WTA Tour, which has the Grand Slams such as the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, the WTA Finals, WTA 1000, WTA 500, and WTA 250.
While the 250 is the lowest among the tiers in the WTA Tour, it still offers higher ranking points and prize money.
At the moment, Tiangco said there are only a few franchises left for WTA tournaments ranked 250 or higher.
“Hindi ‘yun sure thing kasi kasi may limited number of 250s lang, may limited number of 500s, 1000s,” said Tiangco.
In contrast to the WTA tournaments rated 250 or higher, the 125 is easily obtained as the franchise is owned by the WTA. Philta is in its first year of a three-year franchise with the WTA for the Philippine Women’s Open.
“So ‘yung 125, they still offer it to other countries because I think they have a target of around 90 125s eventually and then, they will stop. Right now they’re at 60. We are lucky,” said Tiangco.
Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman Patrick Gregorio has indicated his desire to have a WTA 250 in the country in the future while WTA supervisor Cristina Romero gave passing remarks to the Philippine hosting of its first 125.
For now though, it looks like there won’t be a 250 anytime soon.
But while the Philippine Women’s Open is a 125, one advantage that it has is that it coincides with the Australian Open and the players that were eliminated early can be lured into playing in Manila afterwards.
That’s exactly what happened with Filipina tennis star Alex Eala, who confirmed her participation in the Philippine Women’s Open after she lost in the first round of the year's first Grand Slam tournament.
Tiangco is also banking on Filipinos' world-famous hospitality to lure more high-level players to come in the years to come.
“Actually this is a good schedule that we got because this is the second week (of the Australian Open). Remember, nag-press conference tayo. We were transparent that we’re not sure that Alex would come.
"But either way, it's good for us because we attract the good players from AO. Kasi in AO, 128 draw so the next two days pa lang, 64 na ‘yun. ‘Yung 64, since we are within the region, there is a big possibility that, 'We go here,'” said Tiangco.
“And since we’ve shown that we can host and all the players, coaches are happy with the hospitality and the warm reception from the crowd, I’m sure word of mouth pa lang, they will be talking on the tour na, “Hey, you should go to the Philippines. It’s a 125 but you feel like you are a bigger tournament. You are treated really special out there.’ It’s a good thing for us,” said Tiangco.
'We learned a lot from this'
For now, Tiangco said the goal is to improve the hosting of the event as he assured that next year will be a better Philippine Women’s Open for tennis fans in the country.
“I’m sure next year would be much better 125. And we'll have more time to prepare like even the sponsors, everything. I’m sure we learned a lot from this. It’s not perfect, but the good thing is, as you can see everyone really helped each other.
"So if we just up each other and unite and we know our goal, I think we can achieve so many things,” said Tiangco.
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