The former New Zealand tennis number one Belinda Cordwell says it's hugely disappointing that this summer's ASB Classic has been cancelled, but she doesn't believe it will affect the tournament long term.
ASB Tennis Centre Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Tournament director Karl Budge announced the cancellation yesterday because of the complexities of running a women's and men's tournaments amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In recent years the tournaments have attracted the likes of Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, Juan Martin del Potro and Denis Shapovalov.
Cordwell, who was a beaten finalist in 1989, says as a warmup event to the Australian Open, Budge will continue to attract top names to the tournament.
"The players have voted the ASB Classic one of the best tournaments in the world, they love to come to New Zealand, they're well looked after and he's (Budge) right to be buoyant with the fact that he has the locker room and he has people who feel loyal to New Zealand and I think they'll maintain that loyalty."
"Already Karl Budge will be talking to players about their position in 2022," says Cordwell.
"The momentum that this tournament has built over 30 something years to a world class event, it's a real shame that that momentum has been halted by Covid-19 but hopefully it can pick up again for 2022."
Cordwell says it is disappointing not just for tennis fans but for all sports fans.
Belinda Cordwell Photo: Photosport
"The organisers clearly looked at a number of options to get the tournament run in New Zealand but it just became untenable when you're looking at quarantine, keeping players in bubbles and then moving them onto Australia."
In making the announcement on Tuesday, Budge said the cancellation doesn't mean the end of the Auckland tournament.
"We're going to be bloody steely in our determination to go and take the ASB Classic to new levels.
"We've been here for 60 years and no virus is going to stop the ASB Classic becoming the annual showpiece that it's become and what we've known for a number of years.
"We've got to make sure that we come back stronger.
"We've had incredible support from our sponsors (and) the team that we've got here that work tirelessly on trying to make a summer of tennis happen and I think we owe it to them to do everything that we possibly can to ensure that we return in 2022 and we return with a real statement," said Budge.
