SPORTS

Masters organisers hold crisis meeting

November 02, 2004 11:44 IST
The organisers of European Masters Series tournaments will meet in Paris on Tuesday to discuss ways to curb the number of withdrawals by leading players from their events.

American Andre Agassi and Argentine David Nalbandian both pulled out from the Paris Masters at the last minute on Monday, adding their names to a long list of injured absentees.

World number one Roger Federer, Argentine Guillermo Coria, Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean and Spaniards Carlos Moya and Juan Carlos Ferrero are also missing the 2.43-million euros Parisian indoor tournament.

"The tournament deeply regrets these withdrawals, which add up to an already too-long list of absent players in Paris, as in Madrid two weeks ago," organisers said in a statement.

Last week Paris Masters director Alain Riou said he was "very concerned" by the increasing number of withdrawals from the end of the season tournaments.

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Madrid organisers also complained at the growing number of big-name
absentees which led to poor attendances.

"Regardless of the reasons for these no-shows, these withdrawals from the top tier tournaments of the ATP strongly discredit the ATP Tour as a whole," organisers added.

They said that ATP chief Mark Miles was aware of the necessity "to rapidly solve these issues".

"These questions will be discussed by the European Masters Series tournament directors who have a meeting scheduled on Tuesday in Paris," organisers added.

Miles on Saturday rejected suggestions that the calendar was too crowded and said players had only themselves to blame for burnout because they chose to compete in too many tournaments.

Source: REUTERS
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