$6-Million Tennis Cup Play Set Despite Debate

The ruling body of tennis said today that its hotly debated $6-million tournament will take place next year but that it wanted to talk with rival groups to avoid future conflicts with the players’ championship.

The Grand Slam Cup, an eight-player event offering one of the richest prizes in sports, will be played next Dec. 10-16 in one of four West German cities bidding to be the host, the International Tennis Federation said.

The ITF said it still wanted to talk with the Assn. of Tennis Professionals, which is scheduled to stage its own season-ending tournament in Frankfurt, West Germany, just before the cup and has given a chilly reception to the ITF’s plan.

West German tennis officials said they hoped a compromise could be worked out, possibly merging the two tournaments into a single event.

But the international federation said that, as things now stand, it was virtually certain that both tournaments would take place in 1990.

“This does not preclude negotiations,” ITF spokesman Ian Barnes said. “The statement just reiterates that we will have the tournament in West Germany. We have not ruled out talking to them. . . . I think there will be two separate tournaments. I think we’re just talking about how we can avoid these things in the future.”

The ATP, the players’ union, takes over operation of the men’s tennis tour next year. It announced several months ago that it will stage its end-of-season championships in Frankfurt, part of a major restructuring of the tennis calendar.

In October, the ITF announced the Grand Slam Cup, offering $2 million to the winner in a field of eight players with the best records from Wimbledon and the Australian, U.S. and French opens.

The ATP, which has feuded with the federation for years, saw the date, site and purse as a direct challenge to its tour. Several top players, including John McEnroe and Boris Becker, said they might boycott the cup and called the prize money out of proportion for any sports event.

Barnes noted, however, that the first prize will be equaled by a $2-million contribution to a trust fund to help develop tennis around the world. He said the cup had received a warmer welcome from players in recent weeks.