Looking Forward: 2008 Calendar Changes


With the 2007 season barely over, the stars of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour are already gearing up for their 2008 campaigns. In the ever changing world of women's tennis next year will see not only the introduction of several new events, but also a new location for the prestigious Sony Ericsson Championships in November.

The first alteration to last year's calendar comes in February, with a new addition to the Latin American swing in Chile. On February 11 several of the Tour's star names will arrive in Viña del Mar on the Chilean coast for the $200,000, Tier III Cachantun Cup.

The only other major changes in the first half of the year both involve the upgrading of current events, with the Bangalore Open in India moving to Tier II status, while the Qatar Total Open has become a prestigious Tier I event for the very first time.

The second half of the season has also seen several scheduling changes, such as the move of the Tier I Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo from February to September, although undoubtedly the biggest addition to this year's calendar is August's Olympic Tennis Event in Beijing.

As ever, the 2008 season culminates with the $4,450,000 Sony Ericsson Championships, which this year will take place in Doha. The tournament was hosted by the Spanish capital, Madrid, in 2006 and 2007, with current world No.1 Justine Henin winning the event on both occasions. The decision to move the tournament to the Middle East was made in June and the season-ending showpiece will reside in Qatar for three years, before moving to Istanbul in 2011.

The 2008 Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha will take place in the Khalifa International Tennis Complex, a world-class facility that has been the home of the Qatar Total Open event on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour since 2001. As part of the deal, the Qatar Tennis Federation plans to expand and enhance the existing facility to cater for such a world-class event.

"I'm really excited that Doha will host our Sony Ericsson Championships beginning in 2008," said two-time Grand Slam winner and former world No.1 Amélie Mauresmo. "Players really enjoy playing in Doha. We're a global sport and it's great that we are able to feature our very best event in different regions of the world, whether it's Europe, the US, the Middle East or elsewhere."

http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/1/newsr...?ContentID=1911

Given the injuroes on the women's tour is it wise to be addign and upgradign events?

Well Zurich got downgraded to tier 2 and luxembourg tier 3 now...so the fall field is gonna be even more depleted than usual although this year it actually got a decent turnout