WTA Moves Champions Tournament from Indonesia to Bulgaria

The Women's Tennis Association is going to move its Tournament of Champions from Indonesia's Bali to Bulgaria.

Bali will host the event for the last time Nov. 2-6 this year before it moves to the Arena Sofia, Bulgaria's National Sports Arena to be opened in July, for three years from 2012, the Jakarta Globe reported, saying Indonesia is set to lose its only Women's Tennis Association event after organizers revealed they could not find more sponsors for the Tournament of Champions.

The tournament is the WTA's season-ending event, which features eight of the top players on the women's tour. To qualify, six of the players need to have won at least one title during the season but not be participating at the WTA Championships. The other two players receive wild cards.

Kevin Livesey, the Bali tournament's director, told the Jakarta Globe on Monday that there was an option to extend the contract beyond this year.

However, Livesey said the tournament's main sponsor, Commonwealth Bank, decided not to renew the deal it had signed for 2009 to 2011.

He said there were plans "to look at other options and hopefully forge new partnerships with sponsors to bring the tournament back to the country."

"This event has put Bali and Indonesia on the map of international tennis," he said. "In fact, the Bali tournament has been voted by the players as their favorite tournament on the WTA [in 2010]. We would love to bring the tournament back to Bali."

With the tournament moving to the Bulgarian capital Sofia, the WTA will hold its first official event in Bulgaria in 22 years.

"It will be a very good opportunity for promoting our wonderful city and country as a first-class tourist and business destination," said Stefan Tzvetkov, president of the Bulgarian Tennis Federation and the tournament's director.

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