Jakarta lacks tennis lovers

Jakarta lacks tennis lovers

By Arif Suryobuwono

JAKARTA (JP): This year's Indonesia Open Tennis Championships is indeed open -- to question.

From the women's event which started the tournament on Jan. 2 to its men's event finals on Jan. 15, the 3,000-seat Senayan Indoor Tennis Stadium was never filled to capacity.

The Indonesian Tennis Association (Pelti) organized the two- week tennis extravaganza to celebrate the country's 50th anniversary. Private bank Danamon, title sponsor of the event, injected US$600,000 for both the men's and women's competitions, plus the Martina Navratilova-Yayuk Basuki exhibition match.

There were only 55 spectators in the stadium on the first day, tournament director Eddy Katimansah told The Jakarta Post. And on the last day? Certainly no more than 200 people were in the stadium even though it was Sunday.

"I have worked hard to win the game. The many empty seats made me feel my efforts weren't appreciated," said Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands who pipped Czech Radomir Vasek in Sunday's final.

What was wrong with the tournament that there were so many empty seats?

"The tournament would have perhaps been overcrowded had the players played with nothing on," Eddy quipped.

The obstetrics surgeon said a series of bad breaks seemed to be the factor discouraging people from attending.

American world number six Michael Chang, twice champion of the tournament, did not come. He previously made two trips here for the tournaments which offer a whopping $250,00 appearance money.

Australian former Wimbledon winner Pat Cash who registered for the tournament failed to sign-in. Indonesia tennis queen and triple champion Yayuk was forced to give up her semifinal battle due to acute diarrhea.

Then all the Indonesian men's players, who entered the tournament through wildcards and qualifiers, were ousted in the qualifying rounds. To add insult to injury, top seeded Bernd Karbacher of Germany had to pull out of the tournament due to stomach problems.

Common

However, Pelti new chairman Sarwono Kusumaatmadja told the Post that "such poor attendance is currently a common phenomenon in the world, except in places where tennis is traditionally held in high esteem such as Wimbeldon."

Many believe that inviting top-notched world players is a passport to a considerable raise in ticket sales. Facts has shown that this is true. The Kemayoran Tennis Court in North Jakarta was fully packed when Gabriela Sabatini played Yayuk in an exhibition match last year.

According to Amy Yus, a treasury official of Pelti, most of those who came to the stadium were not really interested in the match. "They bought tickets because they wanted to meet Sabatini in person and see for themselves whether she was really as beautiful as her photographs or TV appearance," she said.

The same may be said for former tennis great Navratilova who played Yayuk in an exhibition match here on Jan. 4 which was attended by a record 2,400 people.

But they didn't all necessarily come to see the match. Many came just to be photographed with Martina.

Eddy showed me photographs of all-smiling very important ladies with Martina in their midst. And a man told me how proud he was to have Martina's personal signature.

However, Sarwono dismissed the idea that world top players would guarantee a filled-to-capacity stadium because today's tennis tends to be mechanical, particularly due to the big serving names, and impersonal. Players with attractive personalities are rare nowadays and this makes tennis less interesting to watch, he added.

Hero

Another factor responsible for the poor turnout, according to Sarwono, was that, except for Yayuk, Indonesia lacks tennis heros the public need.

People were also reluctant to come to the tournament because "our players are not in the same league as their opponents," Sarwono added, pointing out how Indonesia's number one Benny Wijaya was forced to run helter-skelter before his first-round demolition by Markus Zoecke of Germany.

Two economic students from the Tarumanegara University, West Jakarta, and two employees who skipped work to see Benny said it was bad timing that was to blame for the empty seats. Most of the matches were held during working hours and students were undergoing exams.

Moreover, January is not a good month for organizing such "extravaganza" as the organizer called it, because January has the blue Monday effect. "People were sated with entertainment last month and are too full to enjoy the event," said one of the employees.

The ticket prices, Rp 5,000 for rounds and Rp 10,000 for quarter finals, semifinals and final matches, were certainly not expensive given that tennis is a middle to upper class sport.

Yet two civil servants from Sumatra who are in a training program here claimed Rp 10,000 was too much. They believed the stadium would be crowded if the entrance was free, an idea which Eddy quickly rejected.

"Everyday we distributed 500 free tickets to all the city's tennis clubs but almost none of them came," said Eddy.

The empty seats spoke not only of a lack of interest. They also showed who the true tennis lovers are, who, it seems, are few and far between.