Maria Sharapova was better value for money than Serena Williams
DAVID LONG
Last updated 12:46, January 5 2017
OPINION: Don't expect Serena Williams to be playing at the ASB Classic again anytime soon after a disappointing week in Auckland from every point of view.
Classic tournament director Karl Budge spent four years trying to persuade the 22-time Grand Slam winner to come to Auckland and it ended up being a letdown from lots of perspectives.
She avoided sponsorship and media opportunities throughout her time in Auckland and you'd have to say Maria Sharapova gave the tournament more bang for its buck when she came in 2011.
Serena Williams didn't play anywhere near her best in Auckland.
Sharapova did lots of interviews in Auckland before the tournament started and made it to the quarterfinals.
There's no doubt Williams tried as hard as she could in her three-set loss to Madison Brengle on Wednesday, but she was woefully underdone and severely lacking match fitness after four months off the circuit.
In her press conference after she lost, she moaned about the weather and that it won't help her prepare for the Australian Open in a fortnight. Those comments would have damaged the reputation of this tournament.
Budge said he didn't hear what she said, but would take a listen.
"I'll have to review those comments," he said.
"But it's been a pretty tough few days with the weather, they haven't been kind at all and you do your best to control a lot of elements, but the weather is one thing I can't control."
Budge enjoys a good relationship with many players, especially Caroline Wozniacki, but Serena and her entourage kept their distance from everyone during their time in New Zealand.
Despite her disappointing showing this week, Budge said he will talk with her team about the possibility of coming back in 2018.
"We didn't have a lot to do with her," he said.
"It's a different relationship than it is with some other players. But she's very professional, she was very focused on trying to win this tournament.
"I hope she appreciates what we did for her and we'll have a conversation in Melbourne and go from there, but certainly when you've got 38km/h gusty winds, it's always going to be pretty tough."
It has been a tough few days for Budge because of the bad weather on Monday and Tuesday, which had a knock-on effect for the Wednesday schedule with four matches put into the day session instead of three, but with play still starting at 12.30pm.
They were setting themselves up for disaster if they had any long matches and that's exactly what happened with two of them going to three sets.
It left spectators for the night session having to wait three hours to see the match between Caroline Wozniacki and Varvara Lepchenko.
Obviously, this caused frustration but it's something that does happen from time to time around the world when day sessions over run.
The problem could have been eased if they started play earlier than the scheduled time of 12.30pm, but Budge said that wasn't an option.
"We have started at 12.30pm all week and we're not going to go away from that schedule," he said.
"We've got to make those commitments, you don't see rugby matches change the scheduled time because of bad weather.
"We moved all the matches to earlier that we could, but we have to give players enough recovery time from last night and also make sure that from a broadcasting point of view we're covered as well."
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