Tennis' future uncertain in Vietnam
Tennis migrated to Vietnam with its French occupiers and remained a game for the rich for many years.
Two decades of war left the game and many courts in disrepair. Among the survivors were courts at the elegant Cercle Sportif country club in what was then called Saigon, a gathering place for VIPs during the 1950s and '60s and now a public park. Courts near Tan Son Nhut Airport were the first location of the U.S. Army stockade later known as Long Binh Jail, and served as helicopter landing pads when Saigon was evacuated in 1975.
Saigon has long since been renamed Ho Chi Minh City and, after years of benign neglect, tennis is undergoing a growth spurt. Tran Ngoc Linh, general secretary of the Vietnam Tennis Association, told the Associated Press last week that between 3,000 and 4,000 courts have been built in the last six or seven years.
In that context, the ATP's just-concluded Vietnam Open, played in the Phu Tho multi-sport arena in Ho Chi Minh City, had interesting symbolic value in its inaugural year. Whether that will translate to practical value for the sport in Vietnam remains to be seen.
Vietnam doesn't have a male or female player ranked in the world's top 1,000. Do Minh Quan, who is 1,025th in the world rankings, was given a wild card to play in the Vietnam Open last week. He lost in the first round and sounded skeptical in an interview with Agence France Presse.
"Vietnam's sports authorities are not investing in its development,'' Quan said. "I'm not optimistic.'' He and Ngo Quang Huy, ranked No. 1,511 this week, received grants of approximately $14,000 from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Sports and Physical Training to train in the U.S. and Thailand, but support needs to be more widespread to encourage younger players, he said.
ATP officials did not provide an attendance figure for the event, won by world No. 63 Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden for his first Tour singles title win since 2002, and local press accounts noted that ticket prices ($30 a day) were out of reach for the average Vietnamese worker.
Brad Drewett, the Sydney-based manager of the ATP's International Group, said discounted tickets were offered to university students. He said the fans he saw seemed knowledgeable and passionate despite the absence of a local player after the first round, and added that ATP is committed to holding the tournament in Ho Chi Minh City for the next two years.
"We knew there was a strong market here and that the economy was growing quite quickly,'' Drewett said. "It was just a matter of waiting for an opportunity to bring a bigger event here.''
That chance came last spring when Shanghai was awarded the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup championships for 2005-2007, opening up the regular tournament date there.
Drewett said the seeds were planted by Ho Chi Minh City's successful Challenger tournament, an event on the circuit one rung below the ATP tour. Held at a country club, it has attracted as many as 15,000 for the week, he said.
The Vietnam Open clearly made at least one person extremely happy -- the unseeded 33-year-old Bjorkman, who said he wanted to come back next year. The world No. 1 doubles player had not played in an ATP singles final since 2003 and broke a singles title drought that went back a year earlier.
"This is my first time in Vietnam and it's been a great week,'' Bjorkman said after beating the Czech Republic's Radek Stepanek, 6-3, 7-6 (4). "I have been provided with good food, good facilities and other services. I wish I had come here earlier … so that I could have more of a chance to get to know more about your city and your country's history.''
Bjorkman's fellow Swede Thomas Johansson, who lost to No. 14 Stepanek in the semifinals, admitted he was "surprised how good it is here. I did not expect this much from Vietnam. We're at an unbelievable hotel. Walking around, it reminds me of Hong Kong a few years ago."
If you build it, he will win: World No. 1 Roger Federer of Switzerland, who collected his 24th straight title and 11th of the 2005 season over the weekend at the Thailand Open, was on hand in Shanghai Monday to inaugurate the new Qi Zhong Stadium, where the Masters Series that decides the ATP championship will be played from Nov. 13-20.
Having opened the joint, Federer knows he'll be expected to close it with a win in the final, too, but, "All the greats will be there and it's not going to be easy,'' he said in an interview posted on the ATP Web site.
Federer defeated Great Britain's Andy Murray 6-3, 7-5 in Bangkok, but the 18-year-old Scot came away with the distinction of making his first ATP final as a wild card and becoming the youngest player from Great Britain to crack the top 100 (No. 72 this week) in 31 years.
Miscellany: No. 3 Kim Clijsters stayed in the zone and on the trail of the world No. 1 ranking, breezing past Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-2, 6-3 in the finals of the FORTIS Championships in Luxembourg. It was Clijsters' eighth title of 2005. … Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan told Bangkok newspaper The Nation that he will take a weeklong break in November to become ordained as a Buddhist priest, a traditional rite for young men in that country.
Freelance writer Bonnie DeSimone is a frequent contributor to ESPN.com.
