A women's tennis event that never take off in Kuala Lumpur

I wanted to write this post a couple of days ago but needed more time to dig info.

If you don't read local paper The News Straits Times, probably you've missed a couple of articles about bringing a WTA women's tennis event to Kuala Lumpur.

The first article was published in September but I first read about it in tennisforum.com.

The initial plan was this: a makeshift tennis stadium to be erected at the Twin Towers' open car park specially for the event.

Very ambitious indeed! And I was super excited!

Now this event was said to be a US$400,000 event and expected to play in the second half of the year 2009.

Okay, that was the first article.

Then there was this second article three months later in December 2008 saying that the Malaysian Open will be held on Feb 23 to March 1.

And this time the venue was: a makeshift tennis stadium to be erected at the Bukit Kiara Equestrian Club (BKEC) in Hartamas!

The article said the organiser was trying to raise the total prize money from USS225,000 to US$400,000 to attract top names for the hard court tournament. Some of the names mentioned including Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic!

Now the event is cancelled.

There are no proper explanation or statement from the organiser or LTAM to the media. Probably because this event is still considered to be in a planning stage and it's not a responsibility to explain what had happened or gone wrong.

From what my source told me, the organiser here is Carbon Group, who has the reputation of managing events like A1GP Malaysia and other motor sports and golf events.

I don't really mind their lack of experience in managing tennis events because you can always engage with the experts from overseas particularly from our neighbouring countries who organise WTA or ATP events every year.

Besides Malaysia has organised tennis exhibitions twice that featured tennis players like Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer as well as legends like Pete Sampras and Bjorn Borg. Although the tennis exhos were organised by different company, you have seen how they worked, roped in sponsors and made it happened.

And not forgetting, Malaysia has organised WTA tournaments back in 1999 and 2000 before it was moved to Bali.

Now what surprises me is that the article stated this: "The local organiser managed to outbid 16 other countries for the WTA Tour event about a month (in November?) ago."

How can you outbid other countries when you know you don't even have enough of the money?

Did the organiser realise the consequences of doing this?

And do they ever think they can organise a huge event like this in just 2-3 months?

And why not make the National Tennis Centre the main venue? This place has been used for ITF Futures and Challenger events! I believe earlier booking and renovation to upgrade the place would be sufficient to turn this place into an international tennis tournament venue.

Supposed 2 weeks from now tennis fans would be able to watch a women's tennis event in Malaysia. And looking at Jelena's schedule, she's free during that Feb 23-March 1 week. She could have travelled here!

Now I wonder if there's any chance for other local organisers to bid for a WTA event like this in the future because of the failure of Carbon Group to put up the show here.

Maria Sharapova shows her dork side

It's disappointing because Maria Sharapova still not back on court yet. In the latest development, the tennis beauty pulled out from playing in Paris and Dubai.

But thankfully Sharapova never disappear from the scene.

Fresh from her website, Sharapova talked about having fun at the Sony Ericsson photo shoot.

Together with her make up artist, stylist and hairstylist, Sharapova and her team put on some silly outfits and posed in front of the camera for fans viewing pleasure.

Sharapova confessed those dorky glasses belong to her!

(Via mariasharapova.com)

Jelena Jankovic getting married in summer?

Sina Sports today reported that Jelena Jankovic and boyfriend water polo player Mladjan Janovic are preparing for their 'secret' wedding scheduled in summer.

However the article did not state clearly whether if it's this year or 2010.

Jelena won't go wrong in a wedding dress on her big day. I hope.

Another article on Blic Online also mentioned about the wedding rumour.

Could this be real?

Jelena has denied it though.

“I’m still young to get married!"

"My career is still in the first place in my life and I want to devote myself to it. Of course I want to have a family one day, but not for now,” said Jelena yesterday to the Belgrade journalists at the Fed Cup press conference.

Mladjan Janovic has also denied the wedding plans.

“Jelena and I love each other, but it is still too early for marriage."

"When I decide to get married, I will first tell my family and friends, not the whole world,” Mladjan said.

Getting married or not, they are not going to keep the secret from us for long :D

(Image via Great Tennis Photos)

Jarmila Gajdosova marries Sam Groth; Who's next?

Jarmila Gajdosova, a Slovak pro tennis player who now plays for Australia, was married last weekend in Albury to Australian no.9 Samuel Groth.

Guess what is their wedding theme? Of course it's a tennis-themed wedding.

“It was good; it was fun. I think we’re actually a pretty good match on the court as well”, said the new bride Gajdosova.

The duo have been together since 2007 when they met at the Australian Institute of Sport for training.

They’ve been together ever since and have even formed an on-court partnership, playing in the mixed doubles event at the Australian Open for the last two years.

However there is little time for the 21-year-old newlyweds to honeymoon as they are both off to different events.

Jarmila will play in a tournament in Pattaya while Sam travels to Spain for training.

Now, whose wedding is next?

Yeps, all eyes on Andy Roddick and Brooklyn Decker!

(Image via sports.sina.cn)