Copyright © 2015. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.

New WTA boss Steve Simon will now have another weapon in his battle to revitalize the women’s tournament calendar once again after the latest attendance figures from last week’s WTA Finals in Singapore hit his desk.

The former head of the Indian Wells Masters found some unpleasant reading from box office statistics. With the absence of world No. 1 Serena Williams, who went into her version of a pout and ended her season early nearly two months ago after a US Open semi-final defeat, not one of the Singapore sessions was a sellout.

Those figures contrast with four session sellouts a year ago in the Lion City, when Williams did attend and the entire event attracted a total crowd of nearly 130,000 fans. Simon, only a month into his job, has been hearing from players about how they want an even shorter season just a few years after the WTA cut back its calendar to end in early November.

But all it really means is that top names merely have more time for easy paydays. with the likes of Maria Sharapova. Williams, Agnieszka Radwanska, Belinda Bencic and Ana Ivanovic all committed to the IPTL Asian exhibition series in December.

Despite the crisis in the ranks, Simon remains upbeat about the future of Singapore, which knows its football and F1 racing but still likely needs more tennis development.

“Anytime you have a player (Williams) who’s in the argument as of one of the best players who’s not here, that’s not good, that hurts us,” said Simon.
“It’s a natural evolution of events. You have your inaugural year (2014) and then you have to build it from there and I’m very confident that we will. I think we’re going to see sold-out crowds here over the years to come.”

Copyright © 2015. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.