Andy felt bad about it, but he didn't think he had the energy to go the distance here. |
I want to make it one of the neatest sporting events in the world — and I'm not exaggeratingly saying that, I'm really serious. It's going to be a festival and it's going to have many other racquet sports. Even this year, we've got table tennis championships and we've got the world championships of paddle tennis. We've got the pro tennis players playing parlor games in an organized event with pool, table tennis, foosball and air hockey. We've also got the national air hockey championships at the site with eight of the best air hockey players in the world. |
I'm a promoter of this sport so if I've ever got somebody who wants to come watch and can't because they can't get a ticket, that's just breaking my heart. |
I'm pushing it to boundaries that are way new, and much, much further than any of these other events do. And if other people decide to be more like us, then I think that's fantastic. |
It is just complete, guaranteed, instant credibility. They are two of the most exciting player in the history of the sport. The real magic of our draw is that it is so deep. |
My mission is always to grow the game of tennis. I didn't want to just put on another tennis tournament. I wanted to do something that was different. I wanted to do something that could bring people that wouldn't normally go to a tennis tournament and watch, and then sell them on tennis while they are there. |
Next year, our aspirations are huge. We're going to have the world's biggest tennis tournament next year that's going to have tens of thousands of people that will play all over the country and they will all feed into Las Vegas. We'll have this big, mammoth draw the week before where probably 128 people all play for a chance to get into the main draw of the tournament and we're going to film it (for The Tennis Channel) and we're going to make it like an 'American Idol' type of thing. It's going to be cool. |
Outside of a Grand Slam, I don't think there's a tournament in the world that has this many top players representing their countries. It's really remarkable that we have this many No. 1's. And with so many countries being represented, it's going to give the fans from Las Vegas who are from those countries a chance to come out and root for their countrymen. |
People don't look down on you -- 'You're still using a Mac?' -- like they did five or six years ago. |
She called just wanting to tell me about the facility and if she could get any kind of publicity on the Tennis Channel. She was telling me how neat this new facility was. She sent me some pictures and we came out and looked at it. We were like 'holy cow,' I can't believe this is a municipal tennis facility. |
They (Brown and Mayor Oscar Goodman) bent over backwards to make it work. (The city officials) were extraordinarily accommodating and it's been a wonderful experience. |
They've got the best hotels, best restaurants in the world. Obviously, the [men's players] are really into poker now. It was like the stars were in alignment. |
This could become one of the favorite stops for the players after just one year. They understood how much effort we made to make them feel welcome. |
This unique racquet is symbolic of professional tennis' return to Las Vegas. It represents both the excitement and sizzle of the city and the great tennis fans will see at The Tennis Channel Open presented by Panasonic, the newest gem on the professional tennis circuit. |
Those two competitors shaped the design of the tournament. Instead of making it just a men's tournament, we came up with this concept of having a big festival with all different kinds of events happening at the same time. |