Interesting approach to take for the tournament, and a dangerous one! What if more tournaments do it - 12 invitees and you promise them, say, 20000 in cash just to show up, and I am sure enough top 50 players sign up. Old favorites who are slipping in the ranking, new hotshots…

Add 4 local wildcards, and you have a very attractive tournament. Why deal with the WTA, pay them, have no control over what player you are getting, when you can take the Hongkong approach?

I can’t even blame the tournament.

Alsacienne

The tournament will indeed disappear after next week, but it will be back in 2009 as an invitation (exhibition) event.

The current Tier II tournament, which in February 2008 will be held at the Antwerp Sportpaleis for the seventh time, will continue on the same track in 2009: offering 5 players from the top 10, a gold and diamond racket, a unique atmosphere before, during and after the matches and so much more.

“Within the regulations of the WTA’s way of rescheduling things, one could only guarantee us one or two top 10 players and the Belgian audience is used to getting more than that”, according to Bob Verbeeck, general manager of Octagon cis and organising director of the Proximus Diamond Games. “The financial consequences of becoming an absolutely major tournament in the new calendar would simply be impossible for the Belgian market.”

“In order for us to be able to still be reeling in the best players, we will abandon our current setup and will become a tournament by invitation only from 2009 onwards. Every title holder of official 2008 WTA tournaments will be shortlisted for invitation. From that list we will select 12 to 16 players and organize a tournament of about four days. Practical details and timing will follow early 2008, but let’s concentrate on the 2008 first. That one will still run as we’ve run the previous ones”, according to Bob Verbeeck.

(source: Proximus Diamond Games)

Thanks for bringing this subject up! I’ll probably run a more detailed post about this after the tournament ends.