NEW YORK, NY, USA - The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour announced Thursday its calendar for the 2010 season, which features three new tournaments in all regions of the world and which comes on the heels of the landmark Roadmap calendar announced a year ago and implemented during the 2009 season. The Roadmap, featuring the most sweeping reforms in Tour history, has delivered to fans and sponsors a more fan-friendly and healthier structure that to date has more consistently delivered stars to top events and significantly reduced player withdrawals.
Click here to view the 2010 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour calendar (PDF)
The new 2010 calendar features 53 tournaments (in addition to the four Grand Slam events) in 32 countries with total prize money of over $83 million. 2010 will also see one new Premier $700,000 tournament and two new International tournaments added to the calendar, with the San Diego Open replacing the Los Angeles Open as the Premier event during the week of August 2, and the Malaysia Classic in Kuala Lumpur and e-Boks Danish Open in Copenhagen taking place during the weeks of February 22 and August 2, respectively. The San Diego Open, which will be one of the Tour events within the US Open Series, will take place at the La Costa Resort, which staged a very successful Tour event up until 2008 and was a favorite of fans and players.
With the Roadmap reforms implemented in 2009, fans have had the opportunity to watch more stars and rivalries on the game's biggest stages, and follow a shortened and streamlined season that has been successful in unlocking the full value of women's tennis. To date in 2009, the Roadmap has resulted in an increase in Top 10 players meeting their tournament commitments from 77% to 92% and a reduction in total player withdrawals by 36%, in each case from 2008 to 2009.
"With three new tournaments investing in our sport in each of the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions, the Tour's 2010 calendar continues to showcase the global commercial strength of women's tennis," said Stacey Allaster, Chairman and CEO of the Tour. "I am very proud of the fact that despite a worldwide recession, we have been able to achieve modest growth. The key to this growth and investment is consistently delivering a premium sports and entertainment product to fans and sponsors around the world."
The international breadth of tournaments includes 24 events in Europe, 15 events in the Americas and 18 events in the Asia-Pacific region. Seventeen combined events include Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Beijing, Sydney, Moscow, Eastbourne, New Haven, Brisbane, 's-Hertogenbosch, Estoril, Memphis and Acapulco, along with the four Grand Slams. Seven back-to-back men/women events include Dubai, Tokyo, Rome, Cincinnati, Canada, Auckland, and Bastad. Additionally, in 2011 Rome, Cincinnati and Canada will all be combined men/women events.
