The ticket !!!
Indoor Stadium with the 4 giant screens, like what you will see in other professional WTA tournaments around the world
Maria Sharapova serves...
Anna Chakvetadze serves...
Anna on the left and Maria on the right
Maria does her characteristic victory wave to the crowd...enigmatic!
Prize Presentation @ the end with Ministers Vivian Balakrishnan n Teo Ser Luck...Many thanks to my cousin who invited me to watch Maria Sharapove Live in Singapore on Dec 30. His church friend's dad happens to be the boss of Pastamania and I suspect the latter was one of the co-sponsors of this event. Hence, the free corporate tickets.
Much hype was played in the media and indeed it lived up to expectations. Everybody knows about Maria Sharapova...those who dun ought to face the firing squad! What about Maria's opponent, Anna Chakvetadze?
Anna Chakvetadze is another russian prodigy who came of age this year with her stunning performance in the US Open where she reached the semis and captured 4 singles titles. (The organizers should give out free tix to those who can pronounce Anna's sirname properly. It's Chad-ver-tads-cee...)
I was like 50m away from Maria! That's abt as close as I will ever get to her...haha...unless i strike it rich in future and pay her to play a match for me on my 60th birthday...Wait...she'll be 57 by then....and wrinkled... Now, that's not gg to be a pleasant sight with her in a mini-skirt and her 'breath-taking' grunts.
Maria was by all account, fantastic! So was Anna in the 2nd set. Anna was obliterated by Maria in the first set 6-0 in under 30min. 2nd set was more of a contest with Maria prevailing 7-6(12-10). I paid a grand total of $0!haha...not complaining here... With a crowd of 9300, I guess the event can be considered a success. When asked about Singapore's potential of holding a WTA (Women Tennis Association) tournament, Maria gave her endorsement! Wala...(mind you, Maria was paid USD1million to play in this exhibition match)
Doing some simple maths, the event was not profitable! 9300tix @ SGD80-SGD1800, the revenue will be ard SGD1.3-SGD1.5million. Maria's fees alone would have wiped that out. What abt Anna's fees? USD100k-USD200k? 1st class air tickets? Presidential accommodation @ Fullerton Hotel? Security and logistics?
Judging by what was observed last night, the Singapore crowd is very new to tennis and its court ethics. Flash photography and handphones going off in between points with the occasional baby wails. Let's not get me started on the linemen and ball people! They were untrained and clueless at times. It can be very annoying to the players and it reflects very badly on the organizers. This is one area that deserves more planning and improvement in future if a WTA is to be held in Singapore.
Much hype was played in the media and indeed it lived up to expectations. Everybody knows about Maria Sharapova...those who dun ought to face the firing squad! What about Maria's opponent, Anna Chakvetadze?
Anna Chakvetadze is another russian prodigy who came of age this year with her stunning performance in the US Open where she reached the semis and captured 4 singles titles. (The organizers should give out free tix to those who can pronounce Anna's sirname properly. It's Chad-ver-tads-cee...)
I was like 50m away from Maria! That's abt as close as I will ever get to her...haha...unless i strike it rich in future and pay her to play a match for me on my 60th birthday...Wait...she'll be 57 by then....and wrinkled... Now, that's not gg to be a pleasant sight with her in a mini-skirt and her 'breath-taking' grunts.
Maria was by all account, fantastic! So was Anna in the 2nd set. Anna was obliterated by Maria in the first set 6-0 in under 30min. 2nd set was more of a contest with Maria prevailing 7-6(12-10). I paid a grand total of $0!haha...not complaining here... With a crowd of 9300, I guess the event can be considered a success. When asked about Singapore's potential of holding a WTA (Women Tennis Association) tournament, Maria gave her endorsement! Wala...(mind you, Maria was paid USD1million to play in this exhibition match)
Doing some simple maths, the event was not profitable! 9300tix @ SGD80-SGD1800, the revenue will be ard SGD1.3-SGD1.5million. Maria's fees alone would have wiped that out. What abt Anna's fees? USD100k-USD200k? 1st class air tickets? Presidential accommodation @ Fullerton Hotel? Security and logistics?
Judging by what was observed last night, the Singapore crowd is very new to tennis and its court ethics. Flash photography and handphones going off in between points with the occasional baby wails. Let's not get me started on the linemen and ball people! They were untrained and clueless at times. It can be very annoying to the players and it reflects very badly on the organizers. This is one area that deserves more planning and improvement in future if a WTA is to be held in Singapore.
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