KEY POINTS:
Two regular visitors to Auckland's international women's event received special awards this week.
Meilen Tu, the ASB Classic champion in 2001, and Puerto Rican Kristina Brandi were on their 10th successive trip to the tournament and that commitment was rewarded on centre court.
The chances of that loyalty
being repeated in the years ahead are slim, if the Women's Tennis Association presses ahead with plans to restructure the women's circuit.
The women's association has planned big changes for 2010, which threatens the future of a host of lower tier events, which cater primarily for players outside the elite top 20.
Despite the WTA's positive noises, they are moves which will mainly benefit the game's best players.
"It will make the calendar more understandable, so fans can clearly follow the circuit," WTA chief executive Larry Scott said when the plans were unveiled last November, adding that the schedule will be "healthier for players".
"This addresses the issue of players' withdrawals caused by a season that is simply too long and too gruelling."
They may be admirable ideas, but there is more than a whiff of looking after the hotshots at the expense of the massive underbelly of players who are either striving to make the elite, or will always be plucky journeywomen just below that level.
Women's tennis is divided into four tiers.
* Tier 1, which carries the biggest prizemoney, has 10 events, with a US$1.34 million ($2 million) purse each.
* Tier 2 has 15 events, all worth US$600,000 apart from a US$650,000 purse in Stuttgart and US$1.5 million in Dubai.
* Tier 3, with 17 events, ranging from US$225,000 to a minimum US$175,000.
* Tier 4, which includes Auckland, has 15 tournaments, with almost all purses of US$145,000.
Tiers 3 and 4 provide the lifeblood for hundreds of players.
Under the WTA plans, there will be fewer tournaments and they will be grouped into Series A and B.
If Auckland survives, it will have to put up more than US$200,000 prizemoney, plus fork out US$450,000 in a one-off licence fee to be in Series B.
Initially, that fee had to be paid in a lump sum. Now the WTA says it can be in several payments over four years.
Classic director Richard Palmer hopes that can be read as a softening in the association's stance, perhaps recognising the unhappiness felt by other tournaments in the same boat as Auckland.
The WTA wants applications in by March. The paperwork to be completed has used up a small forest.
Palmer is still waiting to see what the ground rules are going to be.
But hanging over the Classic is the whisper that oil money in Qatar, which hosts a men's tournament this week, is looking to put up more than US$1 million for a women's event, possibly as soon as next year.
The implications are obvious: if that hoovers up the top 30 players, who does that leave to play the likes of Auckland or Australia's two January events of similar standing, the Gold Coast and Hobart?
"If it did happen, yes it would have very serious implications for us," Palmer said.
"We are working through the process of staying part of the tour and waiting to see what other tournaments would be the same week as us."
Palmer said the Classic had put "our tuppence worth in on what we think is fair and not fair".
They have talked with Australian officials, who are similarly unimpressed, and the prospect of putting a united argument to the WTA is not out of bounds.
For now, it's a case of putting in the paperwork and waiting.
This comes at a time when the Classic has enjoyed one of its best weeks. The field, with four top 20 players, was its strongest. They have had bumper crowds.
Palmer has been tournament director for 11 years. He's a father figure for it, and these are anxious times.
"When I became tournament director, this was in serious danger of disappearing. It's grown year to year and look what we've got out there.
"There's a lot of people who want to keep this tournament here. We'll do our very best to make sure something stays in place - but sometimes things are beyond anyone's control."
Russian Vera Zvonareva was fifth seed for the Classic, the beaten finalist last year, world No 24 and a players' representative on the WTA.
Her Tour bio lists one of her pet dislikes as people with no sense of humour and people who don't tell the truth. Her words on Thursday weren't funny but she was firing from the hip. She fears for the Classic's future.
"The future of tennis is all about players on the tour, not about just the top 20 or top 10," Zvonareva said. "If they reduce the amount of tournaments, they reduce the chances for young players coming up."And that's the lifeblood of the game.
Inside the WTA
How does the WTA work?
This year there are 57 tournaments spread over four tiers, plus the four Grand Slams, the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships, worth US$3 million ($4.3 million), and the teams Fed Cup to be contested by more than 1400 women, playing for a total of US$62 million in prizes.
What are the WTA's aims?
To put in place a restructuring from 2010, or possibly 2009, reducing the number of tournaments, but increasing the prizemoney.
What are the key points in its strategy?
* To shorten the season, ending in October;
* To streamline top level events with the best players competing against each other more often;
* To create four mandatory combined events with the men's ATP tour;
* To simplify the ranking system.
Who benefits?
The top players, who potentially will be obliged to play fewer tournaments, but with more earning potential.
