Tennis: NZ tournaments unaffected by planned changes

New Zealand's two top-tier professional tennis tournaments will be unaffected by changes proposed for the international calendar.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) recently gave its backing to a longer summer break for players, aimed at finding ways of improving the long-term growth of tennis. Their proposal was for an off-season of at least two months.

The Auckland-hosted Heineken Open for men in early January and the ASB Classic for women in late December are not under threat, according to Auckland Tennis chief executive director Graham Pearce, also the Heineken tournament director.

The issue of a longer off-season had yet to be discussed by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the body that controls professional tournaments and which includes Pearce as a board member. It was on their agenda but was complex issue.

"Most players already have two months off now. Those that don't are in Davis Cup finals and end-of-year championships (men's Masters Cup, women's World Championships)," Pearce told NZPA.

"Whatever transpires, the Auckland events will stay where they are as lead-ins to the Australian Open. I don't see it having a major negative impact on us."

Pearce said player burnout was not necessarily an issue in the modern game as the number of tournaments had not increased for some time. However, he said there was room for improvement to "make sense out of the flow of events".

Another change which could impact on the New Zealand tournaments would be if the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, was shifted from January to March. The change was mooted by players this year because of the excessive summer heat in Melbourne and the desire from some for a longer lead-in.

Pearce said the earliest such a change could take place was in 2005 and it would impact on at least 23 other tournaments, such was the delicate nature of the international calendar.

"And if the Australian Open did move to March, it would be into the football season, the Formula One Grand Prix and all sorts of things. There are some good commercials why they're in January," he said.

"Certainly, we (the Auckland tournaments) would always be positioned as lead-in events to the Open."

Other ITF proposals at their recent meeting were to introduce a series of high-profile 7-8 day tournaments with international and television appeal, a combined year-end tournament and to give calendar priority for international events such as the Davis Cup, Fed Cup and Olympics.

- NZPA