Barna gets its WTA

June 7, 2007 on 7:33 am | In Uncategorized |

Saturday , June 9 to Saurday June 10.

Barcelona has always been proud of its ATP tennis tourney, the Godo, won once again this year by Rata Nadal, but what has been lacking in these parts has been a decent ladies tournament. All that has changed this year, with the KIA getting the WTA seal of approval, and thus forming a ranking part of the regular ladies professional tour.

Coming smack, bang on the back of the French Open in Paris, the driving force behind the inaugural tournament is none other than Spain’s most successful tennis playing lady of all time, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario. It is set to be the biggest ladies compo of the year in a country that has been strangely bereft of any major tennis featuring the fairer sex. The venue is the Vail d’Hebron tennis complex, which was used for the 1992 Olympics, and is right next to the Montbau metro station.

The clay court facilities are top notch, and so is the city but the biggest problem has been attracting big names to an event that has absolutely zero tradition in an already very crowed world tennis calendar.

Spanish number 1 and number 31 in the world, 25 year old Anabel Medina the reigning Olympic champion, was one of the first to put her name down for Barcelona, and she was joined by Madrid’s Vivi Ruano, her Federations Cup team-mate and doubles winner in the French, US and Australian Opens, usually in tandem with Argentina’s Paola Suarez.

But, unless there are any late surprises, the rest of the field is not massively inspiring. Martina Muller, Meghann Shaughnessy, Emilie Loit, Romina Oprandi, Lourdes Domfnguez-Lino, Tathiana Garbin and Catalina Castano are the biggest entries so far, and let’s be honest, these girls are hardly the cream of global tennis talent. However, the prices are more than reasonable. For the qualifying rounds (Saturday to Thursday) a general ticket costs just five euros, and you can get a seat m the grandstands for ten. For Fridays semi finals, they are asking ten for a general ticket and 15 for the grandstand, while the final on Friday is selling for 15 general and 20 grandstand. For 35 or 50 euros respectively, you can get a pass for the entire tournament. For full details of the competition, check out this website.

Buy FC Barcelona Tickets