The Taiwan Open women’s tennis tournament is to take place in Taipei from Jan. 27 to Feb. 4, the organizing committee announced yesterday.
“We have worked hard during the negotiations and garnered the support of many agencies, including the Taipei City Government, the Chinese Taipei Tennis Association and the Sports Administration,” organizing committee head Yang Hui-ju (楊蕙如) said.
“We have succeeded in signing up 20 top-ranking women players to participate in the tournament,” she added.
Entering its third year, the Taiwan Open has seen its importance grow to become one of the main WTA tournaments in Asia, Yang said.
Players can still register for the tournament, she said.
Several top players have vowed to participate, Yang said, adding that she is confident that the competition next year will feature an even better line-up of stars than last year.
Yang said that the finalized list is to be announced in the coming weeks.
The first tournament took place at Kaohsiung’s Yangming Tennis Center last year and this year’s competition was held at the Taipei Arena during the Lunar New Year holiday.
“For next year, we are moving to a new location: the Heping Sports Complex in Taipei. Work has been underway to divide the complex into separate indoor courts and training grounds. We will lay WTA-approved surface material, which we have also used at the Taipei Arena. It is the highest quality indoor surface for major international tournaments,” Yang said.
The Heping venue would be an improvement from the Taipei Arena, as the two main courts at the arena were side-by-side with a small separation, she said.
“There were noise issues at those courts. As matches were going on concurrently, the sounds of players, balls being hit and applause by the audience caused interference,” Yang said.
The winners of this year’s tournament, Taiwan’s Chan sisters in the doubles event and Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in singles, have promised to take part in next year’s competition, as they aim to defend their title, she said.
Officials at the organizing committee also sought the support of local fans, as they said the tournament puts Taiwan on the map and it is also good publicity to promote Taipei and the nation to the world.
They estimated that a total of 24,000 articles by international media covered Taiwan Open matches this year.
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