Tennis Forum banner

WTA officially announces 2016 calendar

24K views 241 replies 89 participants last post by  tjltens 
#1 ·
WTA ANNOUNCES 2016 CALENDAR
The WTA Board of Directors has approved the 2016 WTA Calendar, which includes a record nine WTA events across the Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, compared to two WTA events there in 2012.


ST. PETERSBURG, FL, USA - The WTA announced Wednesday that its Board of Directors has approved the calendar for the 2016 season. As the global leader in women's professional sport, the 2016 WTA calendar will include 56 WTA events, in addition to the Olympic Games Tennis Event in Rio de Janeiro, and four Grand Slams.

The Board approved the relocation of two International events as the Pattaya City and Baku tournaments relocate to Kaohsiung, Taiwan (Week 6, replacing Pattaya City) and Nanchang, capital city of Jiangxi province from Chinese Mainland (Week 31, replacing Baku). Host city of a WTA 125k Series event in 2014 and 2015, Nanchang will elevate its status to an International event for 2016.

"Our mission is to deliver a premier, compelling global sport entertainment experience that engages our fans around the world," said WTA Chairman & CEO, Stacey Allaster. "As the WTA expands to new markets, our goal is for fans to witness the most inspirational sport entertainment experience on Earth. Our players compete for the ultimate year-long prize, the Billie Jean King Trophy presented to the champion at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global."

Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, which are the key growth markets for WTA, will host a record nine WTA Premier and International tournaments in 2016. In comparison, there were only two WTA events - Beijing and Guangzhou - in China during the 2012 season.

2016 WTA Calendar - Nine WTA Events in Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan
Premier Mandatory: Beijing
Premier 5: Wuhan
WTA Elite Trophy: Zhuhai
International: Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Nanchang, Shenzhen, Tianjin

The WTA's long-term strategy of growing women's tennis in the Asia-Pacific region is built around an expansive footprint in China and the region, featuring Singapore hosting the prestigious year-end WTA Finals for a record five years from 2014 to 2018, and a newly added WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai for another record five years from 2015 to 2019.

The season-long build-up will culminate once again in Singapore for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global from October 23 to Nov 1.

Other Highlights for the 2016 WTA Calendar:
• In 2016, Louisville, Kentucky, USA becomes host to an International level WTA event for the first time in Week 34 staged the same week as New Haven, a Premier-level event. The United States will host a total of nine events in 2016, including the US Open.
• With the Olympic Games Tennis Event set to take place in Rio de Janeiro from August 6 to 14, Stanford will move to Week 29 (week of July 18), one week after Wimbledon and will be followed by Montréal.
• After the Olympics, the US hardcourt series will resume in Cincinnati (Week 33, week of August 15).
• With an expanded and enhanced grass court season, an International event in Mallorca will debut in Week 24 (week of June 13), opposite Birmingham.
• Doha will host a Premier 5 event in Week 8 of 2016 (week of February 22). Doha and Dubai rotate years hosting the Premier 5 event.

Other calendar changes approved:
• Effective in 2015, the International event in Osaka will be relocated to Tokyo and will continue to be held the week immediately after the US Open.

Source: http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/4783611/title/wta-announces-2016-calendar

Direct link to new calendar: http://www.wtatennis.com/SEWTATour-Archive/Archive/AboutTheTour/TourCalendar_2016.pdf
 
See less See more
#6 ·
Yes.

Looking at even bigger picture, 14 out of 56 events are located in Asia... exactly 1/4 of the whole tour
7 events in China
1 event in Hong Kong
1 event in Taiwan
1 event in Singapore
1 event in Malaysia
2 events in Japan
1 event in South Korea

Europe has 19 out of 56. North America has 9.
 
#9 ·
It's very early for the calendar to be finalised - or should I say almost finalised, since there's a TBD the same week as Stuttgart.
 
#10 ·
It could be another event in China or South East Asia. I wouldn't be surprised at this point.
I mean... they placed Nanchang in the middle of the US Open Series. I expect Stacey to place at least one Chinese event in the middle of the European clay court season.
 
#17 ·
In Mallorca? Not a problem IMHO. Mallorca at that time of the the year will be swamped by tourists, many from the UK. Not all of them will want to drink themselves silly or get burned to a crisp.

Nanchang looks like a spectacularly bad idea. A couple of players from the top 50 will might not qualify for the Olympic singles, owing to the quota of 4 players per country. However, I can't see any of them going to Nanchang the previous week, unless they are in a real vulturing mood. They'll play Montreal, then maybe Florianoplis. But not Nanchang.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rafaelkafka
#18 ·
She is still trying to make China happen without any Chinese stars. Na has been retired for nearly a year, Jie likely retired, Peng likely to retire soon. The current crop of Chinese players are not filling the gaps

Oh WTA :eek:
 
#20 ·
Not to mention that hardly anyone would even bother to show up for those obscure Chinese tournaments. I doubt general public or even players themselves have even heard for those cities...Guangzhou, Kaohsiung, Nanchang, Shenzhen, Tianjin

:tape:
 
#23 ·
Stacey has been repeating that "most inspirational sport entertainment experience on Earth" line for months now.

The new Asian event would make sense if they were held during the Asian Swing. Linz, Moscow and Luxembourg should be moved elsewhere on the calendar as the WTA won't bring the YEC back to Europe anytime soon.
 
#34 ·
People like to bash the ITF but thank Jesus they have control of the slams, god knows where they'd be otherwise. What kind of flop field will be in Nanchang :lol: I guess some of the girls who miss out on Rio due to country restrictions but even then with the rest of that time in the calendar in America that event has mess written all over it.
 
#35 ·
Australian Open Series
Middle Eastern Premier events / Sounth American international events
Indian Wells and Miami
European clay court season
Grass court season
US Open Series
Asian swing
WTA Finals

Is it that difficult??? Why do they keep throwing random shit around and make everything so complicated when it could be so simple?
 
#37 ·
Overall the calendar is actually improving the last few years. They are fleshing out the clay and grass seasons.

Next issues are logistical stuff. Eg. With this calendar, internationals are awarding too many points. How can you have events like Tashkent giving 280 points to someone when it's not even going to get a top 50 player, which is 90 points more than the QFists in Wuhan which will probably have 15+ of the top 20. There is the occasional strong international, but the rules and the scheduling dictate that the majority are weak and too many points are given for them right now. Of course the biggest madness of all is how many points Zhuhai is awarding. 700 points for winning 4 matches, which are guaranteed to be against players outside the top 8 :tape:.
 
#44 · (Edited)
The WTA aren't fleshing out the Clay and grass seasons, the ITF are by moving Wimbledon back and creating an extra week for grass. The indoor WTA stuff like Katowice and Antwerp should be at the end of the season with the other European indoor events. If they can't have them together in February, not one in feb, one in april which is dumb. Rio, the other Brazilian one and Bogatar should be placed together and be just before the Mexican tournaments or just at the start of clay season. Kuala Lumpar, Shenzhen, Kaohsuing, Nanchang, should be clumped together and placed just before or after the OZ Open.

Ideally the tour should go:

1)The Oz open to be a week later and maybe have a mini Asian tour parallel to the OZ/New Zealand one that leads into it.

2) Mini-Asian tour after OZ Open. Antwerp and Katowice if they can't join the season end indoor ones.

3) Middle eastern swing, add Tashkent here. Have the latin american tournaments as a parallel swing during february

3) US double. Though I hear march is a stupid month to have it due to Match Madness meaning they dont have much attention. Also two weeks each is to long.

4) Clay season. Though bring Roland Garros a week earlier (maybe) and make Wimbledon a week later or two and find two more grass tournaments (Queens for the women?).

5) Grass season, expand it by a week or two. Wimbledon could easily be a week later and add in another international grass tournament after Eastbourne.

6) Late european summer swing

7) US swing

8) Asian swing and parallel the european hard court swing.

9) Make fed Cup Feb-April-July rather than Feb-April-Nov. Or make it April-July-Nov if you must have the final at the end of the season.
 
#39 ·
Wasn't a thread last year about how China doesn't even broadcast the WTA and only show a little bit of the ATP? Why is Stacey obsessed by it then?

They built their entire long term growth plan around a 30 years old local star who's now retired and there's no future Slam winner in sight yet they keep on focusing on China when the demand just isn't there. The FBI should look into it ... :tape:

The public funds BS has got to stop.
 
#40 ·
Wasn't a thread last year about how China doesn't even broadcast the WTA and only show a little bit of the ATP?

They built their entire long term growth plan around a 30 years old local star who's now retired and there's no future Slam winner in sight yet they keep on focusing on China when the demand just isn't there. The FBI should look into it ... :tape:
This so much :happy::sobbing::happy:
 
#72 ·
Me too!! I will see you there, sis! Hopefully we get at least one big star. If Queenus went I would probably end my life afterwards because I would be so happy and my life would be complete.
 
#45 ·
I find it kinky and weird that this, ok let's call her a LADY instead of %^$&$&, is unable to bring that many sponsors to have 3 event per weeks, as it was quite common in early 00s, or to create some routes player can follow without spending 20 hours in airplane. So MMs on different continents in the same week, but with continuation in the next week, not like now that in those MMs in China we will see cut off circa 220 for MD, and QD will be full of local ALTs.

But yeah... easy points for Chinese girl, more injustice in tennis.
Can somebody send Stacey to the table tennis world?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top