MARLBORO Championships organisers' hopes of rejoining the Association of Tennis Professionals' official Tour have been put on hold because of a full international calendar.
Organisers of October's special event last week had high-level talks with officials from the ATP. And tournament director Ken Catton said the current calendar does not allow the Marlboro to join the Salem Open on the official world circuit.
Catton, who had previously organised the Hong Kong Open for two decades, spoke with the ATP's chief executive officer Mark Miles and executive vice president Larry Scott during last week's tournament won by American Chinese Michael Chang.
''We were talking to them and we discussed all of the necessary issues,'' said Catton. ''In fact, we have been talking to the ATP for the last two years to explore ways of becoming part of the Tour.
''It is all a matter of the calendar and, at the moment, it is full. One way is for somebody to sell a big tournament during that week. But I can't see somebody selling a successful tournament.
''But having said that, we have a very good tournament. It is often incorrectly referred to as an 'exhibition', when it is in fact a 'special event'. Exhibitions are one-off matches for an agreed amount of money, whereas ours is a proper tournament.'' This year's event is scheduled for the third week of October and will clash with ATP events in Beijing, Lyon and Vienna.