LINZ, October 15, 2017
“The tournament in Linz has become a proper event. This is the best thing you can say about a tournament,” told Steve Simon, CEO of the WTA, on Sunday at the final press conference in the VIP club of the Tips Arena.
Mats Wilander, who attended the Upper Austria Ladies Linz for the first time as guest of tournament ambassador Barbara Schett, added: “I am generally very impressed by the special atmosphere. I am very surprised by the high level of the tournament. We saw a lot of high class matches. The players impress with a lot of variety in their game. There is more finesse in women’s tennis than in men’s tennis.”
Steve Simon responded to the question of where the WTA would be in five to ten years: “We want to achieve a better value, bringing a stronger product to the court. People like stars who dominate this sport. A closer collaboration with the ITF and tournaments at lower level is also needed.”
Simon also expressed his opinion as a supporter of combined events for men and women. “The fans would enjoy watching them both. The more tournaments there are with men and women, the better,” he explained.
Simon also finds it a “good decision” that the agency MatchMaker by Peter Michael and Sandra Reichel recently received the license for the traditional ATP event in Hamburg. He welcomes the idea that from 2019 onwards, there will be not only an ATP, but also a WTA tournament in Hamburg.
