WTA Finals hoping for 100,000 visitors

SINGAPORE — The aim is to draw over 100,000 visitors to the S$1.33 billion Sports Hub during the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Finals from Oct 17 to 26, and World Sport Group (WSG), event promoter of the US$6.5 million (S$8.1 million) tournament, is bullish about meeting that target in the first of its five-year stay in Singapore.

The previous three editions of the prestigious season-ending tournament in Istanbul saw an aggregate of over 200,000 — including close to 70,000 fans last year — and the Singapore version is aiming to surpass that figure. The WTA Finals marked its 100-day countdown with the launch of a giant tennis ball clock outside OCBC Centre yesterday, and while WSG and WTA declined to disclose details on ticket sales, Georgiou said: “Ticket sales are good … they are progressing well and we have a good response. I think we will get very close to the overall target of over 100,000 visitors attending the event over the 10 days, with a large part of it ticketed.

“There is going to be a very clear and conscious effort to take this event into the heartlands and invite the heartlands to visit the Sports Hub. Hopefully they will be inspired by the superstars that are here and visit what is a world-class facility in the Sports Hub.”

Melissa Pine, WTA Finals tournament director added: “We’ll be focusing on the fan experience, player experience, sell-out crowds. It’s going to be a sport entertainment spectacle, and we’re working on exciting events that will engage not just hardcore tennis fans ... there’s going to be something for everybody.”

The 10-day tennis festival will also bring its fringe activities to the Kallang Sports Hub’s other facilities. The practice courts will be located in the OCBC Arena, with the 55,000-seater National Stadium hosting an entertainment event and the OCBC Plaza a venue for the fan festival.

Fringe tournaments like the Future Stars, Rising Stars exhibition and South-east Asian Junior Championships will be held during the WTA Finals, with former tennis great Martina Navratilova confirmed for the Legends exhibition.

The WTA’s top eight-ranked singles players and eight doubles teams for the week of Oct 20 will earn their tickets to Singapore, with the current top three — Serena Williams, Li Na and Simona Halep — and fan favourite Maria Sharapova and Canadian sensation Eugenie Bouchard occupying prime spots on the leaderboard.

Yesterday’s countdown also saw students from Yu Neng Primary School getting 100 tickets to catch the action “live” at the Indoor Stadium in October.