Justine stays out of appearnce fee, Maria to decide soon

2010/02/09

By Ajitpal Singh

AUSTRALIAN Open finalist Justine Henin has decided not to participate in the US$250,000 (RM774,000) Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Malaysian International Open on Feb 22-28.
Justine’s decision comes after the organisers, Carbon Media failed to raise the money for the appearance fee for the Belgian former World No 1.

Justine, on her website, said she is back in Belgium for a break and will return to the tour in March at Indian Wells.

Maria Kirilenko, the Russian who had earlier confirmed her participation, is now in two minds.

According to a source, the World No 37 is asking for more money to play here and Carbon Media will need to raise the sum if they hope to get her. It is believed the organisers will need to raise between US$100,000 (RM340,000) and US$200,000 for each player.

Carbon Media is not expected to approach any other big names for the tournament.

“The tournament has no title sponsor so far. The ones we have approached declined, saying previous tennis tournaments in Kuala Lumpur did not attract enough publicity,” said a source yesterday.

The Malaysian International Open will be held at the Bukit Kiara Equestrian and Country Resort.

World No 7 Elena Dementieva of Russia leads the pack of world ranked players for the Malaysian Open.

The others are China's Li Na (10) and Zheng Jie (20), Germany's Sabine Liscki (25), India's Sania Mirza (59), Japan's Kimiko Date Krumm (62) and Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn (87).

The Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia (LTAM) is in two minds on whether to award a wild card to Jawairiah Noordin after her disastrous show in the recent Fed Cup.

It is learnt that LTAM is only interested in securing wild cards for the tournament’s qualifying round.