World Tennis Magazine

Unique Tennis Perspectives

delray beach

ALLASTER TALKS ON WTA IN DELRAY

by

By Charles Bricker

Here’s Stacey Allaster, CEO of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, on the possibility of the women’s tour returning to Delray Beach, Fl., to play a tournament in conjunction with the ATP’s International Tennis Championships being played in Delray this week.

“As you know, we have several tournaments in the Delray time period. However, if there was a change with one of our existing tournaments, it would be great to speak with the Delray promoter.”

As necessarily sketchy as that statement is, it should be encouraging to Delray tournament director Mark Baron, whose wants to run three overlapping events over a two-week period.

Delray Beach
Delray Beach

He would play the women’s tournament one week, beginning Monday, the ATP Champions (an eight-player tournament of 30- and 40-year-old former Grand Slam stars) from the following Saturday through Tuesday, and his own, long-standing ATP regular tour event, beginning the day after the women’s tournament ends.

Baron has an eye on 2013 as the date to bring the idea to fruition and, with his tournament slipping back another week on the calendar because of changes in the Davis Cup scheduling, he thinks it can be done.

While the women’s calendar has been crowded the last couple of weeks with three events the week of Feb. 15 and two the week of Feb. 22, there is only one WTA tournament next week (in Monterrey, Mexico). Could a second event be added that week at Delray? Possibly. It’s also possible that by 2013 a tournament on the WTA schedule will, for economic reasons, want to relocate.

This story is going to be played out over a long time, but the seeds are planted.

Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com

THE TENNIS MATCH THAT ENDED WITHOUT A CHAIR UMPIRE AND LINESMEN

by

Ivan Lendl announced this week that he will return to play competitive tennis when he will face Mats Wilander in an April 10 exhibition match in Atlantic City, N.J. in an event that will also feature Andy Roddick and Marat Safin. It was 25 years ago today, on February 5, 1985, that Lendl and Andy Roddick’s current coach Larry Stefanki played an unusual match at the modern day Sony Ericsson Open that ended without an umpire or linesmen. The following is the excerpt about the match, as documented in the book ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY ($19.95, New Chapter Press, www.TennisHistoryBook.com).

1985 – Ivan Lendl defeats Larry Stefanki 6-2, 6-0 in the first round of the Lipton Championships in Delray Beach, Fla., in a match that ended without an umpire or linesmen. “We have played a few times without the umpire knowing the score, but never without an umpire,” said Lendl. After Lendl hit an ace – that was never called – t to take a 4-0 lead in the second set, Stefanki was assessed a point penalty for delaying play while speaking with the chair umpire Luigi Brambilla of Italy. While Brambilla and other officials were discussing the point penalty, Lendl and Stefanki then continued play, prompting the officials and linesmen to leave the court and Lendl and Stefanki finishing the match without a chair umpire or linesmen. “Lendl said we should play while they are talking it over,” said Stefanki. “Tennis is entertainment and the fans loved it. When the umpire said we should start, we were already at deuce and told him that. We kept playing and the umpire left. Lendl and I made our own calls and somebody in the press box kept calling out the score. We were having fun and it was totally in control. The match wasn’t close and we just wanted to have some fun.“ The Lendl-Stefanki match is played on the first day of “the Lipton” – the co-ed tournament founded by former U.S. Davis Cup player Butch Buchholz that evolves into the modern day Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Fla. The tournament soon is regarded by many as the biggest tournament in the world outside of the four major championships. Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere wins the event’s first match earlier in the day, defeating Angeliki Kanellopoulou of Greece 6-3, 6-2.