Next year's ASB Classic will not change format and the expected impact of changes to the women's tour are unlikely to hit the Auckland tournament as hard as first feared.
The tournament's future was recently cast in doubt after talk of a big-money tournament in Doha, Qatar, being
added to the calendar the same week as the ASB Classic. This came on top of plans by the WTA to restructure the tour in an attempt to eliminate player burnout at the top level, which threatened to dissolve the quality of the ASB Classic.
But tournament director Richard Palmer was "encouraged" by what he heard at a meeting of the WTA during last month's Australian Open.
Doha has not been added to the WTA's provisional calendar for 2008 and the 2009 tournament is expected to carry a 32-strong field rather than 56. The big-money event in Hong Kong is also being dropped, which will offset the drain on player resources.
Palmer said that from 2009 it appeared they would be able to lure a top 10 player - something they were restricted from doing this year - and they would still have a quality field at the top end.
The main difference, he said, would be at the bottom end with the lowest-ranked player likely to be closer to 110 in the world rather than 85.
"It was as good a result as I could have expected," Palmer said of the meeting. "I had real fears that what they were proposing just wouldn't be feasible for us, but I was very pleasantly surprised. What they are talking about in terms of restructuring the tour seems reasonable."
The ASB Classic will still be required to upgrade prizemoney in 2009 from US$145,000 to US$225,000 and is likely to have to pay a US$450,000 franchise fee once the WTA is restructured into Series A and Series B tournaments. The ASB Classic will be a lower-tier Series B event. A decision on the make-up of the women's tour is expected by the end of March.
