GETTING BOUNCED? : L.A. Tennis Tournament May Be Relegated to Minor Event Under Restructuring

The union of men’s professional tennis players, which is forming its own tour in 1990, may relegate the Los Angeles tournament to minor status, which would virtually guarantee that none of the top-ranked players would compete in it.

Such a move would result from a shake-up of tournaments that has been expected since the Assn. of Tennis Professionals announced at the U.S. Open that it would break away from the Pro Council and run its own international tour. The ATP’s release of its 1990 schedule and format are overdue, but some details are known.

Brad Harris, an assistant to Hamilton Jordan, ATP’s chief executive officer, confirmed Monday that there will probably be 20 top events, called World Series events, played in 16 weeks. Each event will carry a minimum of $1 million in prize money except when two World Series events are played the same week. Each of those conflicting events would carry $600,000 in prize money, according to one plan.

World Series events would be the ATP tour’s equivalent of the existing Grand Prix circuit Super Series events, which the Los Angeles event is a part of. However, chances are that it won’t be a World Series event on the ATP tour.

Gene Scott, a tournament director at Livingston, N.J., and Westchester, N.Y., as well as this week’s Nabisco Masters, said he has attended informal meetings with the ATP and the fate of the Los Angeles tournament may already have been determined.

“There are going to be some tournaments shuffled in and some shuffled out,” Scott said. “There will be some heartaches and some loud screams. Los Angeles is probably one of the tournaments that is in jeopardy, as far as changing their status. In everybody’s opinion, Los Angeles would not be one of the events picked for World Series status.”

Jack Kramer, the tournament’s longtime promoter, said that if the tournament’s classification is reduced, the ATP will be making a mistake.

“Los Angeles should not be relegated to second status,” Kramer said. “If they can find so many other places that deserve a tournament more than L.A., I’d have to say something’s wrong. It would be a major mistake.”

The designation of tournaments will be made by an ATP policy board to be composed of a number of players and representatives of the tournaments. Harris said it has not been decided whether Los Angeles will be a World Series event in 1990.

“That decision would be for the ATP board to decide,” Harris said.

Harris said the board will determine tournament status by examining such criteria as the tennis stadium, the court’s surface, the size of the draw, the local television market, tournament history and the amount of prize money.

Besides the 4 Grand Slam events, there were 79 tournaments played internationally in 1988, and Harris said each one will be invited to apply for World Series status. Slightly more than a quarter of them will make it.

Those that do not will have to apply for a lesser status, Harris said.

The Volvo/Los Angeles is played at the Los Angeles Tennis Center at UCLA, a permanent facility built for the 1984 Olympics. This year’s tournament, with a total purse of $425,000, set tournament attendance records. Promoter Bobby Kramer, Jack Kramer’s son, remains optimistic about the status of his tournament.

“We like to think we meet the criteria,” Kramer said. “But it’s all going to come down to dollars.”

In that case, the Los Angeles tournament may have some problems. Kramer said it may be difficult to increase the prize money to $1 million because title sponsor Volvo has not indicated whether it would make up the difference.

“At this point in time, I’d say it wasn’t in their plans,” he said.

Although the Los Angeles tournament may be have difficulty gaining World Series status, it seems that the Newsweek Grand Champions at Indian Wells will have no such problem. Many believe the March event to be a shoo-in as a World Series event. Harris said he didn’t see why 2 of 20 World Series events could not be held in Southern California, but that the decisions would be made solely on criteria.

According to Harris, only World Series events would be tournaments with big draws, in large countries and played outdoors. All other tournaments would have no top-10 players designated to play, which is the case now under Grand Prix rules.

Bobby Kramer said it has been discussed that non-World Series tournaments pay appearance fees to attract players, because they will no longer be designated to play. He said, however, that he is not sure of appearance fees or a great deal else yet.

“No one really has an answer to the hard questions,” he said.

The ATP is preparing for 1990 a “generic calendar,” said Harris. It includes an 8-week off-season at the end of the inaugural year of the players’ union tour. The 1990 season would end in late November with the ATP finals, Harris said. That event would be the season-ending version of the Nabisco Masters, which would no longer exist after 1989.