Singapore likely to be host city for women's tennis
Singapore looks set to be unveiled later on Wednesday as the host city for the glittering annual finale of the women’s tennis season.
The south-east Asian city-state has been vying with Tianjin in China and Monterrey, Mexico, for the right to stage the US$6 million WTA Championships next year and beyond.
The sports events and marketing agency which managed the bid for the championships earlier this week called a media conference on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the governing body of women’s tennis, the WTA, posted a picture on Twitter of chairman and chief executive Stacey Allaster with the caption “Stacey has landed at our next year+ #WTAChamps host city! Where is she?”
In the photograph Allaster is seen smiling at immigration control, in front of a man wearing a uniform bearing the Singapore insignia.
The season-ender is the most prestigious women’s tennis event outside the four grand slam tournaments - the Australian, French and US Opens plus Wimbledon.
It was first staged in 1972, and has been hosted in cities including Los Angeles, New York City, Munich, Madrid, Doha and Istanbul where the tournament moved to in 2011 and will remain through this year.
The season finale would be staged at Singapore’s Sports Hub: a complex being built on the site of Singapore’s National Stadium, scheduled for completion in April next year.
Singapore has not hosted an elite tennis tournament since the men’s Singapore Open in 1999.
The women’s season-ender would be the latest high profile sports event to be lured to the Republic, following the Formula One Grand Prix, golf’s HSBC Women’s Champions and the 2010 Youth Olympic Games.
