Tennis: Tu good, but she may not defend title

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Meilen Tu's chances of returning to defend the women's tennis title she won in Auckland on Saturday could be decided for her.

Talks over the next few weeks will determine the future of the ASB Bank Classic, and with it the likely line-up for next year's tournament.

Minutes after her impressive 1h 40m 7-6, 6-2 win over Argentine Paola Suarez in the final, Tu said she would love to come back to Auckland for a fifth time, but much would depend on the tournament's status.

"If it is a tier-four tournament, I will almost certainly be back to defend," said the Californian-based Tu, who continued the amazing run of unseeded players during the week-long Classic in disposing of Suarez, the sixth seed and favourite for the final. "It would be kind of neat to come back as the defending champion."

Whether the tournament will be lifted from its tier-five status will be decided after discussions between the ASB Bank as sponsors (there is one year to run on the current contract), New Zealand Tennis, which owns the rights to host the tournament, and Auckland Tennis as event organisers.

New Zealand Tennis chief executive Pat O'Rourke said his board would meet on February 27, when he expected the decision would be made.

Lifting the status by a tier, or two, would mean upping the ante by at least $US30,000 ($66,000). More importantly, from a player's point of view, is the increase in ranking points - up from 80 (tier five) to 140 for the winner. The extra points, from 140 to 155, gained in going to tier three is not seen as particularly important.

"We will sit down and go through things," said Auckland Tennis chief executive Graham Pearce. "While we do not have to make a firm decision until later in the year, we must give some indication by the end of February.

"Obviously the strength of the New Zealand dollar will have some bearing, but there are other issues we have to look at."

These off -court happenings will not, however, overshadow what was again a very good year-opening Sanex WTA tournament.

As tournament director, Richard Palmer was quick to point out, you do not need the really big names to have an exciting tournament.

"When you look at the results, you can see that there is not all that much difference between a player ranked 30th in the world and 60th," said Palmer. "That's why it is not surprising that seeded players have often struggled here."

Suarez went into the tournament ranked 36th, Tu 67th.

But Tu overcame the nerves of playing her first tour final to win in a match riddled with service breaks, but which produced some tense tennis.

The trend started from the first game when a tentative Tu dropped her serve, winning only one point.

But she returned the favour in the next and games then went with service to 3-3. That was the last time in the set either player held serve as it headed to a tiebreaker.

Again the service blues struck: Suarez served for the set at 6-5 in the tiebreaker and again at 9-8 after a hotly disputed line call went against Tu.

But the American hung in and at 10-10 won a point on her serve and then broke Suarez on the next to win the tiebreaker 12-10, and the set, almost an hour after it had started in on-court temperatures close to 40 deg C.

The second set lacked the same excitement.

Suarez was broken in the third and seventh games as Tu wrapped it up in 42 minutes.

"I'm happy. I tried to do the best I can but it was not enough," said 24-year-old Suarez. " I knew whoever won the first set would probably win."

Despite her far higher doubles ranking, Suarez said her focus remained on singles.

"I play doubles for fun," she said before leaving t for an early evening flight to Australia and the Canberra tournament which starts this morning.

Tu had a little more time to savour he first triumph. She flew out early yesterday morning for Hobart as a champion.

"That will take some getting used to," she said. "I was starting to wonder whether I would ever win a title. But I kept plugging away. Usually I don't look at the rankings, but maybe next week I will take a peek."

She will see that she has risen to the top 60.

In the doubles final, the seeds finally had their day. Third seeds Alexandra Fusai, of France, who was defending her title, and new partner Rita Grande, of Italy, beating unseeded Swiss Emmanuelle Gagliardi and Austrian Barbara Schett 7-6 (7-4), 6-3.