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MASTERS SERIES MONTE-CARLOApril 22, 2007Zeljko FranulovicMONTE-CARLO, MONACO ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: Ladies and gentlemen good morning, and welcome to our traditional press conference at the end of the tournament, which is an opportunity to thank you for your loyalty to the tournament and to give you the results of this 101st edition. During our last two press conferences, one in Monaco the other one in Paris, I had expressed a wish. I want to do as well as in 2006, the year of the 100th anniversary of our tournament, and I realized today we have done even better. As soon as the first days of the tournament we already knew that the results would be beyond all our expectations, not only because we had once again an exceptional draw but also because we had record sales of tickets and the stadium was completely booked all along the week from Sunday to Sunday. It is true that was the first time we had a Sunday start and this helped us a lot. So here are the figures. All our boxes, 260 of them, were sold a long time before the tournament. And as far as the number of spectators is concerned, we had this year 109, 840 spectators, which is more than last year when we had 105 or 106,000. But as we all know, a tennis tournament is not only the number of tickets sold, but we are also very proud of the quality of the welcome of everybody in the stadium and also of the quality of the show we proposed. We had a level of game which was up to the expectations of the best tournaments in the world, and this year again we have a dream final thanks to two exceptional athletes. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our partners: The Swiss Watchmaker Rolex, our presenting sponsor who keeps reinforcing his support and adding innovations in our tournament, as well as BNP Paribas and its team and our other loyal partners and all the players, and in particular the two finalists, Roger and Rafa, for whom I have the great admiration not only for their quality as athletes but for their quality as persons. I also congratulate myself because I'm very happy of the participation and the support of all the young talents. I like it call them the young wolves in tennis, French tennis and international tennis, like Gasquet, Monfils, Djokovic, Murray, Baghdatis, Berdych, et cetera. But before leaving a place to the final, I would like to talk about an event which was a marking event in this edition of the Masters Series of Monte-Carlo presented by Rolex. It was the spontaneous support of the players who really wanted to express their opposition to the 2009 plan of ATP and who expressed their solidarity with the European tournaments also affected by that plan with a particular support for the Monte-Carlo tournament. You were able yourself to participate in this press conference last Monday, which became a real spectacular declaration of the best top players who required an immediate stop for that plan, and that the ATP should start to listen to them. During my long career as a player and as a leader, that's the third time that I witnessed such an event. The first time was at parking lot of the US Open in 1989, the second time was in Miami two weeks ago, and the last time was Monday here. Unfortunately, the difference is that the last two times were caused by internal conflicts and not an external conflict, as was the case in 1989. Let's give way now to sport and a dream final, which is up to the standard of the best tournaments in the world. Usually I conclude my press conferences by thanking, before anything else, all of you dear members of the press, TV, and media. But this time, allow me to first express my thanks for the players for the show that he put the up, for their supportive behavior, and also for the unconditional support of our tournament. I would like it make an appointment with you for next year from the 19th through the 27th of April. Questions? Q. Did you have the opportunity to speak with Etienne when he came here? ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: No. Q. Was it not possible? ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: It was possible, but it was not thought about. Q. Why? ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: It's difficult to say, but I think the goal of his visit here was to talk with the players. I think the players were the most expressive persons, and this was the moment to meet with the players. Q. Did you have the opportunity of talking with Roger Federer about this? ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: Several times, indeed, and not only here in Monte-Carlo. I spend a lot of time with the players. Q. What is the process from now on? Do you have dates for the trial, for the meetings? ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: You mean the plan? Well, there's the meeting of the ATP board in Las Vegas where the applications for the Masters Series will be given and they will be studied and approved, and until then I can't say anything. Q. But the calendar, when will it be officially approved? Is it going to be next week? ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: It's very difficult to say how far we are going to go, because I don't see how during that meeting the calendar could be officially approved because the purpose of this meeting is only to study the applications of the Masters Series. They have to be approved first and then after we'll see. Q. How difficult is it for you to be on the board of the ATP and tournament director of a tournament that's suing the ATP? I mean, it's sort of a very strange situation, isn't it? ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: You're right. It's a very strange situation. But as a board member, of course I support and I have always supported improvements on the game. There's no questions about it. But to a point where it makes sense. But as soon as I joined the board I immediately expressed my opposition to the plan. Doesn't mean that I'm against the board or the game, just that I will express my opposition towards this plan, which was basically affecting the European region and European events. It's not the story about Monte-Carlo /Hamburg, it's the story about Europe as a region, and it's a long story. If we start looking at the calendar that has been proposed, we would find that almost every segment of the calendar there's some European events that are getting hurt by this. I think we are focussing too much on Monte-Carlo/ Hamburg, because as I said, I am a little bit sitting on two chairs. But these things will come. When the calendar will be approved the other things will come up, too. Q. The players seem to be with you on your side of the fence, so that's three votes on the board. If you vote with them, then this plan isn't going pass because it's going to be six to two; am I right? ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: You're right in theory. The players expressed their support in Miami and here. It was obvious. It doesn't mean that their representatives will want that. We don't know that. We'll see. Q. But the chances look that way. ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: I really do hope so, because that's one of the -- that would be the best way to avoid a major crisis. Now we have a crisis. But if the representatives started listening to the players as they asked them to, then probably this plan could be stopped. Q. Could we just go back the basics. Could you enumerate the reasons given initially for the proposal and what your immediate reaction was to those reasons? Did they stand up? ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: The reasons for the plan to be proposed? Q. Yes. ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: I think it's a vision of the new leadership of the ATP, and I couldn't agree more. Any change in any major sports organization should bring some in blood and new ideas, and I couldn't agree more with that. It's a part of the certain vision of our president and that the board -- I have to say the rest of the board -- kind of approved and went along. Part of that vision is that tennis should take more care of the fans, of consumers, of, you know, being more open to the -- more number of spectators and being more sellable on television. So we already assisted in some major changes in order to fit, to adapt to that plan. But then at the same time we are kind of shocked that one part of that plan, which were the round robins, didn't really do what was expected. And then we started asking ourselves whether the rest of the plan is going to stand, it's going to fly at the end. So I think that's the best -- I'm trying answer your question. What were the major points of the proposal. So I would say selling better tennis, being more competitive in the very competitive market, improving television, helping players to stay healthy and play less. We accepted right away to have three-set finals. Some of the things were already implemented. But we have to ask ourselves the basis of the plan to really have the game more -- get more closer to the spectator. If you look around here I don't see how can we do anything more, anything better to render tennis and the sport closer to the spectator, because as I said we have 109,000. I don't know if the new Masters Series, which will come probably one day, can do the same. That's what lacking in the plan. Guarantees. Q. Two things have changed from last year: There has been a 56 draw instead of 64 and the final best-of-three instead of best-of-five. That is the change. You agree on both of them, or which one you like better or you don't like both of them? ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: I think in the partnership, which we still -- I mean, I still like to call this relationship between tournament directors and players and ATP, kind of on top that, there must be compromise, give and take. When this proposal came on the table of course we didn't like three-set final, and I hope that we don't have 6-1, 6-1 today or an injury. But that was the goal with the 56 draw was, to give the best players who are going week after week playing the finals to have another day off to play one match less. And we were not happy about that, but, no, after the debate we accepted it. Because we thought that this is our part of responsibility to give, and I think we gave in to help players. If this could help them stay healthy for one more day I will accept it, not for one year or not to get injured. So that was the part of our compromise, hoping that the next time when we ask the players to do something it will be the same. That's what I call the partnership. Q. About Monte-Carlo, Federer was explaining to us in a press conference that in United States the tournaments have more spectators, whereas here you've sort of reached your maximum potential. Maybe that's the problem of Monte-Carlo. ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: No. Because we have plans for extending the stadium. These plans have been submitted for approval to the ATP, so for the time being we have been doing what we could with what we had. But we have plans so that we can welcome 3,500 spectators more towards the sea. We're going to extend the stadium in this direction of so we are not staying still. We are trying to go forward. Q. I think you should check, because you said before that the meeting was in 1989. I think it was 1988. ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: Sorry about. Ubaldo, I trust you. Q. It comes out in the transcript. ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: End of the '80s, okay? Thank you Ubaldo. I appreciate it. Q. Another thing, in the official program we cannot find the winners of Monte-Carlo before '69. I think that should be found and also in the website. For instance, when we want to find out when the last time the two same finalists played two years in a row there was no way it find that. The only way was to go back in certain books, and it was actually in 1939 and 1946, the Pelizza and Petra match. ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: Ubaldo, I take your point. First of all, I admire your expertise. Q. You're the only one. ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: I didn't finish. I admire his expertise and statistics. Point taken. We will try to go further back. Q. Did you speak with Monaco authorities about the problem with this tournament? ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: Several times, yes. We have the same support as in the past from the Monica authorities, and especially now. We have total support. The tennis tournament has an exceptional value for Monaco not only from the economic point of view but also because of the prestige. All these events in Monte-Carlo are an image of the lifestyle, the prestige of the principality, and threatening to downgrade the tournament affects the image of the principality. Therefore, it is logical that we benefit from the total support of the authorities. Q. Who were these authorities? ZELJKO FRANULOVIC: Members of the government. End of FastScripts |
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