After several issues, WTA postpones Louisville tournament until 2017

PARIS — The inaugural Louisville International Open, set to debut the week before the U.S. Open, won't be happening this summer, according to a WTA official.

WTA senior vice president for communications Heather Bowler said Monday in a phone interview that the tournament has been postponed and will debut in 2017.

The International-level event, with total prize money of $250,000, was meant to be added to the WTA calendar in addition to a Premier-level event in New Haven, giving more players the chance to play the week before the year’s last Grand Slam. A majority of WTA players are inactive between the Premier 5 event in Cincinnati two weeks before the U.S. Open and the Open itself, with New Haven offering just a 28-player field.

Dallas hosted an event in 2011 and 2012 the same week, a spot that has not been filled in the calendar the last three seasons. Louisville was chosen in part because of its vicinity to Cincinnati.

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But after an announcement around this time last year of the Louisville International event, months of disarray have surrounded the inaugural staging of it, including the March departure of tournament director Whitney Collins Thompson, who Bowler confirmed had still not been replaced.

The biggest blow? After the tournament initially sought to be held at the University of Louisville those plans fell through, and instead picked the Louisville Boat Club, a country and social club. An August site visit by the WTA concluded that the Boat Club needed to construct three new courts and two new practice courts, and the tournament  failed to get the proper building licenses to do so.

Louisville had announced seven players to its initial field: 2013 Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki; last year’s U.S. Open runner-up Roberta Vinci; two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova; and Americans Shelby Rogers, Nicole Gibbs, Lauren Davis and Irina Falconi.

Falconi, a member of the WTA’s advisory council, told USA TODAY Sports she was disappointed to hear of the news.

“I understand there is good reasoning behind this, but it’s still disappointing,” she said in a phone interview. “At the end of the day, the WTA is going to do what’s best for the players and the tour. Hopefully a lot of things will happen where another tournament comes up. Whatever course it takes, I will support that. It happens.”

Sloane Stephens, another American, was announced to join the field in March. Less than five weeks later, however, the world No. 20 was added to the player field for the Connecticut Open in New Haven, where she has played from 2011 to 2013.

The issues that spelled trouble for the tournament were many. The Louisville Courier-Journal, reported last week that the tournament was exploring a move to E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park. That paperwork had not been filed to the WTA, Bowler said.

Collins Thompson, no longer with the event, did not return calls for comment. Michael Bewley, the tournament organizer, could not be reached.

Bewley, according to the Courier-Journal, had not been responsive to media requests for some time, however.

It's not the first time a tournament has been postponed.  Many years ago in Dallas an event was postponed, although the WTA couldn't recall the exact year. Earlier this year, the WTA canceled a 125 Series (the smallest level event on the WTA) set for May 9-15 in Hempstead Lake State Park on Long Island in New York.

Falconi, who has ties to the Louisville area, said there is continued interest from players for a second WTA event the week before the U.S. Open because of the limited spots in New Haven. Louisville and New Haven are both on the preliminary schedule for 2017, the week of Aug. 21.

“At the end of the day, players want tournaments every week,” said Falconi. “If a draw is smaller, you’re going to be forced to play a top 50 player in the very first round. Louisville is such a gem… it has a lot of tennis history and tradition. If it can’t work out this year, hopefully it will in the future. I was really hoping for the tournament to be there.”

In an interview with USA TODAY Sports during the French Open, WTA CEO Steve Simon said he was “very disappointed” in the issues that Louisville had run into.

“The lease-holder group, because it’s a lease sanction, did contact the WTA a bit ago and advised us that they were having issues,” Simon said. “Louisville is a great city, it’s a great tennis town. I’m very disappointed … You never want to see that. I’m very sad because we were excited about being in Louisville in 2016.”