Raquel Giscafre is the tournament director of the professional women’s tennis event being held at the La Costa Resort and Spa beginning July 30th. Raquel a former player brings a wealth of experience as a player and tournament director to this event. During her playing career was the number one player in Argentina for six years, number 13 in the world in 1975, semifinalist in the U.S. Open in doubles and mixed doubles. The Mercury Insurance Open runs, July 30th-August 7th is headlined by Kim Clijsters, the world’s No. 2 ranked player and Wimbledon Champion, Petra Kvitova.
SZ: Raquel you were one of the founding members with Billie Jean King of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). What are the significant shifts you’ve seen on the business side of women’s tennis, besides larger prize money purses that benefit tour players?
RG: I was not one of the original nine players that you see in the pictures with the one dollar bill that started the tour. But I was the first Latin American on the board of the WTA. The changes that I see in the WTA are gigantic. It has evolved into a very strong tour, it is the most important tour in women’s professional sports. I don’t have the numbers in front of me but I think the tour offers over 60 million dollars in total prize money a year. It’s amazing. Players can make a very nice living and can travel with family, coaches and trainers. At the beginning of the tour we didn’t even have a bathroom in the hotel room.
SZ: Beyond the money what are the benefits you see? Are the players able to create businesses or participate in businesses after leaving the tour?
RG: Absolutely. The WTA has a division that is in charge of educating the players and helping players in their transition from being a tour pro to being able to move on beyond being a player. The tour offers courses and other tools to players and seminars at several tournaments. As a player I enjoyed the social part mingling with sponsors and tournament directors. When I retired I started promoting tennis because I liked the social part. So I began to learn by doing and a lot of players still do that but everything is more organized. There are more tools today for players to make that transition that is so difficult.
Now there are sport psychologists like yourself, (sport psychology consultant), and that is huge. I wish we had sport psychologists traveling with us when we were playing. That’s huge for a players self-esteem. In tennis you lose a lot. Everyday you’re proving that you can be better than your opponent and that you can win. Money has brought the evolution of the sport. Todays tour is strong and has very good people working on it, from the president of the WTA, to tour supervisors, to player relations, and the medical department is very sophisticated.
SZ: The days you played on the tour a player needed to be in the top 15-20 to bring home good money to make a living. How much deeper in the rankings is the range of making a living on the women’s tour?
RG: I personally made enough money to cover my expenses while I played. When I retired I probably had 20k in savings. But I wasn’t a player that played a lot of tournaments. In 1973 the first Virginia Slims tournament was a 10k purse, distributed to 54 players. There wasn’t much money to be made.
SZ: Would the top 50 today make a healthy living?
RG: They can make a lot of money and the players that are only playing doubles can make a great living.
SZ: You participated on the tour at a time players didn’t make enough prize money to hire traveling coaches and trainers. Now that prize money enables players to travel with more resources what are the travel essentials for today’s players?
RG: Most of todays players bring along a coach. In many cases they bring along either their own trainers or their own physical therapist if the player has been struggling with injuries or potential injuries. It’s not unusual for a player to come with two or three people, family, partner, coach.
SZ: Today’s audiences like to feel close to the players and part of the tournament experience. How does the Mercury Insurance tournament provided these opportunities?
RG: The venue of the La Costa Resort tournament is great because it provides a very intimate setting for the tournament. It’s not a large venue like Indian Wells, or Miami where you have a large stadiums. Tennis has been played here for decades. It’s a great venue. The players stay on the property. They love being about to get out of bed and roll onto the courts and walk around the grounds. They have all the amenities provided for them here.There is plenty of security but there is a sense of freedom. It is a favorite tournament for the players.
SZ: What are some of the biggest challenges to putting on this event?
RG: The biggest challenge is raising the money to produce the event and make it profitable. It’s necessary to find sponsors and provide a lot of different events within the events like a fashion show, wine tasting, and music. It’s a different economy. We promoted the tournament at La Costa from 1991 then in 2007 it went away. Two years later the tournament returned. The difference in the economy is interesting. Having operated a tournament in a booming economy and operating this tournament now is different. You rethink how to do everything and you have to be creative to create include everyone in the tennis community.
SZ: What type of events are put on within the tournament to draw community interest?
RG: We work closely with coaches in the community and tennis directors at various clubs and community centers like the YMCA. We put on a kids day, this year it will be held August 1st in the morning and all the kids get in for a free tennis clinic.
SZ: Do the tournament players participate in this or is it mainly local teaching pros?
RG: Some of the tournament players participate in the clinic. Last year Victoria Azarenka who won the 2010 Bank of the West tournament at Stanford came here and did a clinic. That’s how we get the kids involved.
SZ: Are there programs in place to give back to local community organizations from the proceeds of the tournament?
RG: Yes, through the years the tournament has raised over 3 million dollars and given to local charities such as the TriCity Medical Foundation. TriCity Medical Foundation is a sponsor of this years tournament. We put on a big dinner and the tournament donates tickets to the foundation. The tournament also benefits Youth Tennis San Diego.
SZ: As tournament director besides running a smooth tournament what do you most look forward to?
RG: I look forward to the great matches, fantastic atmosphere and seeing people having fun at the event.
Raquel thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk about the upcoming Mercury Insurance Tournament at La Costa.
The Mercury Insurance Open is a participating tournament in the Olympus U.S. Open Series. The U.S. Open Series now in it’s eighth year, is a six week summer tennis season that links the ATP World Tour and WTA tournaments together. The series leads into the U.S. Open. The Mercury Insurance Open is the second women’s event within the series.
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