Malaysia to host US$400k Tier II WTA tournament under Petronas Twin Towers

I've missed this article last month but it's never too late to report this amazing news right now.

It's definitely beyond my imagination to watch WTA players like Maria Sharapova or Serena Williams playing with the Petronas Twin Towers as a spectacular backdrop.

According to the president of Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia (LTAM) Datuk Abdul Razak Latiff, this could become reality in the second half of year 2009 when Kuala Lumpur hosts the US$400,000 Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Malaysian Open.

The tournament, a Tier II WTA event, is expected to attract some of the top names in women's tennis.

A makeshift tennis stadium will be erected at the Twin Towers' open car park specially for the event.

WTF??? Playing on a open car park you might ask!

Nevermind, Petronas has tonnes of money to build a proper tennis court on any ground.

By the way, Malaysia do have a nice national tennis centre but the twin towers backdrop would be a sensational gimmick!

Of course, Malaysian players will not be left out of as the WTA is offering three wild cards to the hosts.

National No 1 Jawairiah Noordin will likely be offered the sole wild card in the main draw, while the other two are on offer for the qualifying round.

The event is tentatively slotted for sometime between August and September, to coincide with the WTA Bali, China, Japan and Taskent (Uzbekistan) events.

Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia (LTAM) president Datuk Abdul Razak Latiff said the Malaysia Open will consist of singles and doubles.

The singles will be a draw of 32 players while the doubles has yet to be confirmed.

"The Sports Ministry has given its blessing and we are currently negotiating with the WTA on the best available dates for the event," said Abdul Razak.

Abdul Razak confirmed that the association have identified the Twin Towers' open car park as the venue.

"However, this is subject to approval from the local authorities. The other option is to host it at Dataran Merdeka."

I'm dying to meet Serbian tennis players like Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic but they are very unlikely to come to Malaysia :( due to political reasons.

Serbian citizens were previously not allowed to enter Malaysia without special permission (now Serbian citizens can obtain visas for a maximum of 30 days*). But again, you and I will never know.

(Via The New Straits Times, tennisforum.com, Image via 2bangkok.com)
*cited from wikipedia

Novak Djokovic's best Halloween costume

Novak Djokovic arrived on the court wearing a mask before his match against Dmitry Tursunov at the Paris Tennis Masters tournament.

Djokovic said: "I got this mask at dinner (three years ago). I asked them, Can I take it? They allowed me to take it. The next day I say for fun I'm going to get into the court like that. I did. That's a little tradition I have with the mask at Halloween."

In that match, Tursunov retired with a shoulder injury. Djokovic was ahead of the match with 6-2, 4-3.

(Via Yahoo! Sport)

Rafael Nadal and Xisca arrived Paris in style

Down the Line reported on Rafael Nadal and girlfriend Maria Francesca Perello or better known as Xisca arriving in Paris in a rather stylish manner earlier this week.

Gone are the t-shirt and khaki shorts we sometimes see when Nadal arrived at the airports for tournaments.

Both Nadal and Xisca look absolutely stunning with those snuggly, stylish scarves!

Later that evening, the lovely young couple headed for a dinner with Nadal continued his argyle ways with the same scarf.

Perhaps that's a gift from Xisca?

Back to business at the BNP Paribas Masters, Nadal who is last year's runner-up finds himself in a quarter of the draw dominated by qualifiers – of the six players looking to secure a spot in the main tournament over the weekend, five are in the Majorcan's section.

Nadal will meet the surging Gael Monfils next up.

(Via Down the Line, Images by ELIOT PRESS @ BauerGriffinOnline.Celebuzz.com)

Shame on the organizers at Seoul Challenger!

Frankly, I don't blog about Challenger events until recently.

The first one I ever did was Tashkent Challenger. If you have followed the recent posts, you know I highly praised the organizer as well as the media team for their professionalism and passion in the tournament.

With the help from Esther, I thought why not blog about the next Challenger event in Seoul.

We quickly realized that Seoul Challenger is no Tashkent Challenger.

Firstly, the media team in Seoul doesn't provide materials (press conference, press releases, etc) in English.

Never mind the language barrier.

The saddest thing happened when the organizer practice favoritism and 'ill-treated' the players.

The following are some of the info that I've gathered from Rendy Lu's forum including posting from Rendy's brother, Thomas.

1. Organizer did not change the venue from outdoor to indoor despite the windy condition and playing under the temperature of 5 degrees! Even Danai Udomchoke complained about the cold temperature in his website.
2. When home boy, Lee Hyung Teik was playing against Rendy in the semifinal, the organizer decided to change the venue to indoor during the last minute.
3. The organizer did not provide an umbrella for Rendy to walk from the players lounge to the indoor stadium to continue the semifinal match.
   
4. When inside, things were chaotic as all seats were filled up with supporters and according to Thomas the organizer didn't allocate seats for player and team.
5. After a few unfair judgments, during the 1st game of 2nd set, Rendy called for the trainer to check on his injured toe (a result from playing 2 matches in one day under cold weather and until night). Rendy who felt he was being treated unfairly decided to retire from the semifinal match and handed Mr Lee the walkover.

In the final result, Mr Lee beat Ivo Minar 6-4, 6-0 to take the Seoul Challenger title.

Now that they are playing in Busan, South Korea, we hope the organizer here would not repeat the same mistakes as what Seoul did last week.

May the best man wins.