After recently hosting three Fed Cup finals, a Davis Cup final and the inaugural Laver Cup, the O2 Arena in Prague would love to host an even bigger event, the WTA Championships, currently hosted by Singapore.
What do you think about Prague as a potential venue for the event?
It seems that St. Petersburg and Manchester are the other - and very strong - contenders.
Yes! Especially since the Czech Republic doesn't have above an international level tour event but contribute so many top players to the tour. The venue is great too
since prague def has a habit to speed up the courts like crazy it be some shocker to the pushers out there in comparison to slow af singapore, no doubt. :lol:
since prague def has a habit to speed up the courts like crazy it be some shocker to the pushers out there in comparison to slow af singapore, no doubt. :lol:
Yes! Especially since the Czech Republic doesn't have above an international level tour event but contribute so many top players to the tour. The venue is great too
As they say: Appetite comes with eating.
After recently hosting three Fed Cup finals, a Davis Cup final and the inaugural Laver Cup, the O2 Arena in Prague would love to host an even bigger event, the WTA Championships, currently hosted by Singapore.
What do you think about Prague as a potential venue for the event?
It seems that St. Petersburg and Manchester are the other - and very strong - contenders.
You know it might actually be cheaper for me to go to see the YEC in Prague than in Manchester which is in my own country Britain can be very expensive! I am not going to St. Petersburg in the current political climate, but I would love to see this beautiful city one day.
However I found the dark court of the Laver Cup hideous and surreal!
Yes, Prague would make a lot of sense, but...with Konta presumably still in the top 20 and possibly qualifying for the tournament and given the success of the ATP finals in London, Manchester might just work! :yeah: It would still be great if it came to Manchester
Sounds like a brilliant venue.
Considering that the Czech Republic has so many elite tennis players and as a country seems dedicated to the sport, Prague seems a natural venue for the YEC.
That would be really great. Never thought Singapore was that great of an idea to be honest. Slavic players dominate women's tennis and they not having a big tournament there is pretty lame.
Prague would deserve it, on the basis of how many top level players they produce. Also, beautiful women and cheap beer, what's not to like?
There was talk of Manchester, maybe they could try and arrange a normal WTA tournament instead? I'd personally prefer that to the finals anyway, which I find a bit boring and not much interest if you don't have a favourite involved. It's a joke that there aren't any tournaments in the northern half of the UK, the midlands has two within fifty miles of each other in Nottingham and Birmingham, and coming from Scotland it's actually quicker to get to London than there.
Yeah it's pretty sparse. I'm from Northumberland and am actually thinking of going to Ilkley next year, stay in Leeds for the latter Fri, Sat, Sun and get the train across each day.
It had a pretty strong field for an ITF tournament last year - Dodin, Diyas, Van U, Sakkari, Rodina, Petkovic, Krunic, T Maria and of course Rybarikova who continued her run. That's not bad at all and have seen weaker international line ups, plus will be easy to get to.
I think one of Prague's advantages is its central location in Europe.
I was at Laver Cup for all three days and sitting right beside me was a couple from Hungary, in the row just behind there were three girls from Poland and several guys from France and I've also met Slovaks, Brits, Germans and obviously people from all over Czechia. During breaks between games, the speaker even called out women from Sydney, Australia and Minnesota, USA.
The rumor has it that lots of (European) players don't like travelling to Singapore and would love the event to return to Europe.
However, considering the recent success of American girls at the last slam and the fact that Istanbul (which is partly European) held the event before Singapore, maybe a city in the U.S. would also make sense as a venue for the YEC.
Singapore is actually OK for a UK & I perspective, obviously not ideal, but could have been far worse - I'm guessing they are starting pretty late on over there as here is the schedule:
Sun 22nd October - 10am start
Mon 23rd - 12.30pm
Tue 24th - 12.30pm
Wed 25th- 12.30pm
Thu 26th - 9am & 12.30pm
Fri 27th - 12.30pm
Sat 28th - 9am & 12.30pm
Sun 28th - 12.30pm
So a lot of 12.30pm starts and nothing before 9am. Certainly better than the Aussie Open which is almost unwatchable live.
Of course its going to have a bidding process. Why should the WTA give the event away?
If its a property that very wealthy companies in different countries will be interested in, that could lead to someone making a monster offer to get it
One huge reason in favour of Prague would be the re-juvenation of the European indoor swing. The short travels from Austria and Luxembourg, and even Moscow is acceptable. It would be a huge positive for the other events. Plus great tennis crowds in Prague. Guaranteed Czech top players for another 5-6 years at the YEC in singles and doubles with Pliskova, Kvitova, BZS, Safarova, Hlavackova, Hradecka and so on. This makes so much sense it probably won´t happen.
At least tennis is a popular sport in the country.
And they should not move the tournament around, just like they don't move the Grand Slams around.
let the YEC be in one place, for ever, otherwise, move the 4 grand slams from country to country.
They could make it work in China, Russia or in England, but Prague really seems like the best option. Plenty of interest there considering Pliskova, Kvitova et al. and they don't have a top-tier event there whereas two of the aforementioned three do.
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