Tennis: Wide-ranging approach saved event, says director

Injuries and fatigue felled the likes of David Ferrer. Photo / Dean Purcell

Heineken Open tournament director Karl Budge believes the wide-ranging recruitment approach is what saved the event this year despite a number of top players withdrawing.

Injuries and fatigue felled the likes of David Ferrer, John Isner, Tommy Robredo and Gael Monfils, which hurt the tournament's field. Qualifier Jiri Vesely won the event after he beat Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-2 in Saturday's final.

Much of the shine was taken off the Stanley St tournament but world-ranked players Ernest Gulbis (13), Roberto Bautista Agut (15) and Kevin Anderson (16) were the remaining top-20 players in the field.

So rather than putting all their appearance money towards paying one big name to attend the event, Budge said the system of spreading the field helped to deliver a competitive event.

"This year proves exactly why we don't go down that path," Budge said. "If you put all your eggs in one basket and they happen to be the one that gets the injury it can start pretty bland. We are all about building depth.

"To be honest, I'd go back and do exactly what we did this year. We recruited seven of the world's best top-20 players to the country. It was a freak year this year. I don't think there was any trend or anything like that. Injuries happen."

Budge said if there was any player he could target for next year's event it would be world No11 Grigor Dimitrov from Bulgaria.

"I'm a big fan of Dimitrov."

The Heineken Open sits nicely on the calendar before the Australian Open in Melbourne and it serves as a useful build-up for many of the top players.

Budge said their spot in the schedule helped them build their field.

"I think we've got to try and do what we can to attract more top-20 players to play the week before a Grand Slam."

While Budge did not have the figure in front of him yesterday, he said the crowds were "record-breaking".

"We run a pretty good commercial model. We'll have a pretty strong year again this year and come away from it with some money to put back into grassroots tennis, which is what we try to do.

"We've tried to make this an event rather than a tournament and I think we have really succeeded in that."