BARBADOS’ PREMIER tennis event might not be on de rocks after all.
Last year’s US Open champ Juan Martin del Potro, along with top 20 players Gael Monfils and John Isner, are all still committed to appearing in the rescheduled Tennis Pon De Rock series after Monfils’ injury forced the postponement of the exhibition’s second edition.
Tournament director Kodi Lewis confirmed the players’ participation for a bigger event next year following days of speculation last week that the exhibition series would be cancelled entirely.
However, no precise date or general time frame has been given for the rescheduled event, which now has to take place during the hectic ATP [Association of Tennis Professionals] season.
“Right now we are looking at some tentative dates,” said director Kodi Lewis of organisers Barbados Invitational Tennis Exhibition (BITE).
“It’s going to be during the season this year, so it’s going to be a little more challenging to find a date which is suitable for all three players.
Originally scheduled for later this month, the high-profiled exhibition had to be postponed to next year after Monfils suffered from severe soreness
in his feet following the conclusion of last month’s Masters event in Paris.
That development came less than three weeks after BITE originally announced Monfils, del Potro and Isner’s participation in the exhibition series, which gained rave reviews after featuring
13-time Grand Slam champ Serena Williams and current women’s No.1 Caroline Wozniacki last year.
And it’s those high appraisals that resulted in BITE deciding against going forward with just Isner and del Potro.
“We thought it in the best interest of the event to keep the event as world-class one and to maintain the reputation we had last year,” Lewis disclosed.
“What we’re looking at is the possibility of putting on a bigger event. So we’re not putting on two events next year, we’re going to have one.”
According to Lewis, BITE has discussed adding another day to the two-day festival with thoughts of bringing in an additional player, as several of the world’s best had shown interest in participating in this year’s exhibition.
But the most likely time for that to happen would be sometime in either March or April, as tennis’ top flight will be down under for January’s Australian Open.
A summer exhibition is also quite unlikely, as the clay court season gets in full swing prior to the year’s second slam, the French Open. And that directly precedes Wimbledon and the American hard court season.
“It’s just really to nail down the logistics of the players. Each of the [players’] managers is going to send us a list of all their [players’] dates,” said Lewis.
“The players have been very understanding. They know these things happen because they’re usually on the other side [and], we’ve been quite lucky that the players have been willing to work with us.”
Lewis also revealed that BITE is moving to purchase an indoor surface, estimated to cost around $25 000, instead of having to fly in a surface for the exhibition series every year.
He advised patrons who purchased tickets that they could obtain refunds from the box offices where the tickets were bought.
