Tennis purists come out to watch the game

Musthofid and Bruce Emond ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Nusa Dua, Bali   |  Sat, 11/07/2009 1:03 PM  |  Sports

With no Indonesian players in the Bali tournament, despite its new status as a year-end championship and huge prize money, the assumption may be that local fans will have nobody to cheer for - and will stay home.

It's not the case for Nia and friends, who traveled all the way from Bandung, West Java, to watch the action.

"We arrived Wednesday and have been watching the matches from the start," said Nia, who traveled in a group of seven.

Still, there were many empty seats in the stands at the Bali International Convention Center on Friday, the last day of round-robin matches. As in the past, when the tournament was held outdoors at the nearby Grand Hyatt from 2001 to 2008, organizers expect full capacity for the semifinals and final over the weekend.

Ticket prices range from Rp 150,000 to Rp 400,000; a special Rp 1 million tour package also is available, including a hotel meal.

Regina Viviene from the organizing committee attributed the low attendance in the first few days - below 50 percent of the 1,800-seat capacity - to the new format of the event, compared to its previous status as a regular Tier III event, when it drew such big-name players as Lindsay Davenport, Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Daniela Hantuchova.

This year, the highest ranked players from among those who won one of the designated tournaments during the calendar year - and who were not playing in the main tour championship in Doha, or committed to the Fed Cup final - were eligible to play in the US$600,000 event. However, the definite qualifiers could only be determined from events of the last few weeks, with the final list released on Oct. 28.

"I think last year was better off," Vivien said. "It may be due partly to the earlier announcement of the entries. The old format enabled players to sort out where to play. We used to have the list by July at the latest.

"This year, when we had a press conference in Jakarta in early October, we were notified of only two names, and it was only two weeks before the tournament start that all the players were confirmed to come."

Vivien added, "people might have been waiting to find out who was playing."

It's common in tennis that the emergence of a national player fuels interest in sponsorship of tournaments. In the early 1990s, when Yayuk Basuki was rising up the rankings, Bank Danamon sponsored men's and women's events, with the big-name draw of Asian-American Michael Chang secured for the ATP Tour tournament.

When Yayuk retired, tennis fans found a local hero in the young Angelique Widjaja. At the debut of the Bali event in 2001, huge crowds turned out to support the 16-year-old Angie, who stunned the tennis world by becoming champion.

There have been lean years since Angie suffered injury and eventually retired in 2008, but Indonesian players still earned qualifying spots in Bali. This year, there was no hope of that with no Indonesian player on the main WTA Tour.

Ari Wangsa, an organizer of tournaments for local players, said the sport today did not hold the same appeal to fans of three decades ago because of a lack of well-known players.

"The crop of players that we have today just don't appeal to tennis fans," he said.

Angie herself sees no need to hand a low-ranked player a wildcard simply for the sake of local interest, saying players must "earn it".

And many will argue that tennis fans are more impressed by the shot-making and personalities of their favorite players than their national flags.

Shane, an Australian woman who has lived in Bali for the past year, was at the matches on Friday simply for the love of the sport.

"It's a wonderful game. I love tennis matches," she said, adding that she drove to the venue with four friends.

Nia also had no difficulty answering when asked who is her favorite player to watch.

"*Aravane* Rezai," she said of the French player.

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