be much more than a series of exhibitions involving past champions from the WTA Tour.  Is the time ripe now to launch a Senior Women’s Tennis Tour?  There are definitely several very popular former champions who could theoretically compete on the Tour, e.g. Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Gabriela Sabatini, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, as well as older players such as Chris Evert, Tracy Austin, Hana Mandlikova, Evonne Goolagong.  There are also recently retired players such as Monica Seles, Kim Clijsters and Martina Hingis who might be interested in playing a few matches again in the future.  The challenge has been that the top women are often not playing as much as their male counterparts since they’ve left the Tour.  Many are busy with family commitments or have simply chosen to pursue other interests and therefore aren’t “tournament tough” to be able to compete in public again.  Nonetheless, would the launch of a Tour entice some of these former greats to practice a bit more because of the chance to compete again and renew old rivalries.  Perhaps the format of the matches needs to be adjusted to suit the needs of the women, e.g. pro sets rather than two out of three sets.  It seems as if there should be a solution which meets the needs of all parties and allows some of these talented tennis stars to bring their games to their fans… again!

Posted by TC at 12:22 PM |