Exhibition tennis event may be a good option for Thai fans

After 11 years of highs and lows, the Thailand Open trudged its way to the final chapter in October. But then no one had a clue that it would be the last. The event was staged with rumours swirling around that Thailand would lose the tournament. And the bad news was confirmed two weeks ago by organisers BEC-Tero Entertainment.

Thai tennis boss Suwat Liptapanlop explained that he had to let go the country’s biggest tennis competition for several reasons. The past few years the tournament suffered due to diminishing turnouts. Suwat said BEC had to bear the losses for several years and it was unfair to them to let the tournament continue.

He also pointed out that the Thailand Open was only an ATP 250 category, which made it difficult to attract star players who were more concerned about bigger tournaments. Lucrative appearance fees, therefore, were needed to lure these players. The organisers were already struggling to find sponsorships, let alone getting extra money to lure the elite players.

Although the tournament was there for 11 years, it was never really ours, technically speaking, said Suwat. “The copyright belonged to an agency and no matter how hard we tried, we failed to buy the licence, making it difficult to seek long-term partnership deals,” he said. Nevertheless, Suwat said he would not let the loss of the tournament affect his image. His solution is to hold a new tournament, an exhibition event, involving big-name players.

The Thai tennis chief wants to invite four players, two from the top four and two from the top 10 to compete in a round-robin or knock-out format which he believes would suit the Thai public more.

At first I kind of opposed the idea of a non-ATP or ITF event because there are no points awarded. That means a huge amount of money would be wasted for the purpose of entertainment and Thai players cannot gain anything in terms of rankings.

On second thoughts, I felt that an ATP event, at this moment, is not suitable for our country due to the decrease in popularity of the sport and paucity of local talent. Furthermore, Thais are more familiar with superstars and would drag themselves to the court only if the players are someone they see or hear in the news. There are many who have never before watched tennis but would be willing to go to the stadium to catch a close glimpse of star players.

And precisely because of these, a seven-day event is not for Thais. A one- or two-day exhibition event is, therefore, something that matches the taste of the fans here. That’s probably why the women’s exhibition in Hua Hin, which has been organised since 2010, maintains its popularity and seats are either almost or fully booked each year.

I wonder if we would have another ATP tournament again in my lifetime. But it would be really tough to organise a successful ATP event again like the Thailand Open in its early years, unless a new breed of talented youngsters arrive on the scene and create a tennis fever like Paradorn Srichaphan did a decade ago.