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Masters Cup to stay in Shanghai until 2008
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-03-16 08:39
BEIJING, March 14 (Reuters) - The Masters Cup, the lucrative year-end finale
to the men's tour, will stay in Shanghai until at least 2008, organisers said on
Tuesday.
A raft of withdrawals from last year's event, the first of what had been a
three-year deal to host the tournament in the booming eastern Chinese city, has
not dissuaded organisers from wanting to host it in 2008, China's Olympic year.
"It's known to all that the 2008 Olympic Games will be held in Beijing," Qiu
Weichang, the deputy director of the Shanghai Administration of Sports, said in
a statement.
"We hope the Tennis Masters Cup can add to the prestige of the 'Sports Year'
and we are fully confident that the Masters Cup in 2008 will be more successful
than ever."
The tournament, which has a history going back to 1970 under various guises,
was devised pitting the top eight players in the world against each other.
Shanghai also hosted the event in 2002 at the International Expo centre when
Australian Lleyton Hewiit won, but there was a great deal of disappointment when
a raft of top name withdrawals seriously weakened the field for its return last
November.
Hewiit, Andy Roddick and Marat Safin all turned down the chance to play at
the purpose-built Qi Zhong Tennis Centre because of injury or personal
commitments, while Rafael Nadal and Andre Agassi pulled out after the start.
MERCEDES PARTS
"We feel like we bought a Mercedes-Benz only to find 60 percent of the auto
parts are no longer the original ones we paid for," an organiser said at last
year's event.
Argentine David Nalbandian beat an injury hampered Roger Federer to break the
world number one's two-year dominance of the tournament.
"It is very good news for tennis, and particularly for tennis in China, that
the Tennis Masters Cup will remain in Shanghai," International Tennis Federation
President Francesco Ricci Bitti said in a statement released by organisers.
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