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State Farm is there Women's tennis returns to Phoenix area
Posted: Friday October 29, 1999 08:13 PM
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) -- World-class women's tennis will return to the Phoenix area for the first time in more than eight years with the inaugural State Farm Women's Tennis Classic this winter. The tournament, announced Friday by IMG, will take place Feb. 28-March 5 at the Scottsdale Princess. The next week, the same hardcourts will be used by the fifth annual Franklin Templeton Tennis Classic for men, another IMG-organized event. The women's tournament will be full-fledged from the outset, offering $500,000 in prize money -- enough to attract a topflight field. "Women's professional tennis has become increasingly popular over the last several years, and this event will feature several of the world's top 10 players," tournament chairman Jim Curley said. The men's event last March was worth $350,000, and drew players like Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Patrick Rafter. Jan-Michael Gambill, the winner, upset Sampras and Agassi on his way to the title. The last major women's tour event held in the state was the Arizona Tennis Classic in October 1991. That $150,000 tournament lost $300,000 for Dorna Sports Production, the sponsor, and moved to Linz, Austria, in 1992. In six years of competition in the state, the tournament had four owners, five sites and was played in both the spring and autumn.
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