Venus Williams’ decision to play the lower tier Asian swing this fall, while on the brink of qualifying for the Sony Ericsson Champions event, has set tongues wagging among tennis fans.

While she could have played the Tier II events in Luxemburg and Stuttgart and the Tier I in Moscow, Williams has opted to play the Tier IV in Seoul and the Tier IIIs in Tokyo and Bangkok.

To no one’s surprise, Williams took the title in Seoul, while Ana Ivanovic won in Luxemburg and Virginie Razzano took the Tier III that same week. The field in Luxemburg was no promoters dream and Williams could have sailed to a title there as well and picked up 275 points instead of 115.

'The Tokyo promoter must have been elated when Venus agreed last minute to play in the dual-gender event after Federer’s withdrawal'


Her decision to play these events may be a clever PR stunt. After all, when you’re the only star playing at a tournament, all eyes and cameras will be on you. But when eight of the other nine Top 10 players all head to Stuttgart as you’re in Tokyo, not playing any other news makers, you’re not going to be filling up any sports pages.

It’s hard to prove the significant role of appearance fees in the players’ decisions, but when you start elimanating the reasons as to why top players play lower tier events, it sometimes stands as the only logical reason.

Here a few reasons why top players play lower tier events:

1. Playing at home: If you’re from a tiny country that hosts a Tier IV and nothing else, you are probably going to play that tournament, if for no other reason than your patriotic duty.

2. There are no higher tier tournaments that week: Only happens about three times a year, but it happens. If you didn’t do so well at Roland Garros, have to redeem yourself at Wimbledon and there’s a 56 main draw, Tier III grass court tournament the week after the French, you’re likely to head off to Birmingham.

3. Coming back from injury: It’s only fair to want to test the waters first; see how the body holds up. Venus Williams made her comeback this year in Memphis, while the rest of the elite were in Dubai. Granted, her ranking wasn’t anything close to what it is now. In combination with point No. 2, we saw Amelie Mauresmo, Maria Sharapova and Elena Dementieva play either the Tier III in Strasbourg or Istanbul the week before Roland Garros. It was a returm from injury for all of them and those were the only tournaments that week.

Now, if you’re a top player, not playing in your home country, you’re fully healthy and there are blue-chip tournaments being held, why are you playing in Bangkok? The only plausible reason seems to come back to appearance fees.

It’s difficult to believe that a top player will go play a tournament that pays the winner about 15% that of bigger tournaments simply because the promoter asks them to, which officials naively choose to believe.

Let’s say you can choose between jobs A and B. Job B officially only pays 15% of what job A pays, but the boss at job B asks you really nicely to take job B. Will you?

Without some other under-the-table gains: No! They are going to have to make it worth your while, one way or another.

It’s the same with tennis. Why would Jelena Jankovic fly to Bangkok after playing indoors in Stuttgart to play an outdoor Tier III event? Instead, she could have played an indoor Tier I event in Moscow, been the No. 2 seed and powered her way through a weak draw, but in Bangkok she retired in her first match with heat illness. If she wasn’t paid to go play in Bangkok, she’s just an atrocious planner.

The fact that the fall events in Asia – excluding Beijing, which is going to become a mandatory event in 2009 anyway – are lower tier events doesn’t mean that they are short on cash. If they must dish out cash for the sake of publicity and revenue, they will. The Tokyo promoter must have been elated when Venus agreed last minute to play in the dual-gender event after Federer’s withdrawal.

Despite the negative publicity, Venus can at least hope that a little bit of history repeats itself. In 2004, Sharapova won Wimbledon, played the low-tier Asian swing and went on to win the Sony Ericsson Championships. That is if the meagre points she earns in Aisa now can earn Venus a birth in Madrid.

Was Venus Williams not paid to play in Asia? If you think so, serve up your opinion below or submit an article to Sportingo.