Lessons to be learned

On the sidelines: Kournikova pictured off-court

BBC tennis correspondent Iain Carter says organisers of the women's game have plenty of room for improvement.

Sometimes you feel like your intelligence is being insulted. The other day someone tried to tell me this has been a great year for women's tennis.

Excuse me - 2001 was the second year running the sport's ranking system came up with a number one player who failed to win a Grand Slam.

Its most photographed player managed to compete in just ten matches.

And its end-of-season championships failed to produce a final and its premier team competition has been hit by the withdrawal of the defending champions.

I'd hate to witness an ordinary year.

At least the ranking issue has been addressed. More emphasis will be put on performances at the Grand Slams.

Downhearted Davenport after her injury

This year, Lindsay Davenport, like her predecessor Martina Hingis, rose to the top through success in mainstream Sanex WTA Tour events.

Most of those were played this year without the presence of Anna Kournikova.

Still without a tournament victory, she's made a slow recovery from a stress fracture in her foot and now languishes 74th in the world rankings.

So it's no wonder one of the sport's biggest draws was not among the elite 16 who competed at the Sanex Championships in Munich last week.

Kournikova's absence may have contributed - though I doubt it in any great number - to the poor ticket sales.

For the final that never happened, around half the 12,000 seats were to have been filled.

The cheapest tickets were in the region of £120 and many took a refund when Davenport pulled out of her clash with Serena Williams.

No-one could do anything about Davenport's misfortune, but it was a savage blow to the event.

The last 12 months have proved you need more than names to create a successful 'product'

Iain Carter

I'm told organisers laughed in resignation when the news came through hours before the final.

The event had already suffered at the sore wrists of Venus Williams and the damaged ankle of Hingis.

There was also the logistical nightmare of staging international sport in the wake of the 11 September terrorist attacks, which prompted the USA's withdrawal from their defence of the Fed Cup in Madrid this week.

All of which was largely out of the administrators'' hands, but there are still lessons to be learned, particularly from the ill-fated Munich championships. First, tickets were too expensive.

Any leading sport should be able to draw a crowd for its season-ending finale bigger than the average attendance of a third division football match, but only if the price is right.

The seats closest to the court should be sold to the general public. Put the corporate crowd back a few rows, closer to their restaurants.

What sort of advert are vast banks of empty seats in full view of the TV cameras?

Sore wrists: Venus has been troubled

And don't insult those who've paid to watch.

On Friday, veteran Nathalie Tauziat received an on-court presentation to mark her retirement.

We were in Germany, paying tribute to a French player, and the speeches were in English.

This is not clever when you're trying to win over a new audience for your 'product'.

Which brings me back to where I started. The person who told me it had been such a great year was the WTA's Chief Operating Officer Josh Ripple. He calls the sport a 'product'.

No doubt he was doing his job of presenting women's tennis in the best light possible when he spoke to me.

I'm sure Ripple and his new chief executive Kevin Wulff (recently appointed from Nike) will fully address the many issues facing the women's game.

After all, it's a sport where surnames are not required. Venus, Serena, Jennifer, Lindsay, Martina and even poor Anna are superstars.

With a fair wind, 2002 could be a great year, but the last 12 months have proved you need more than names to create a successful 'product'.