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Running a tennis tournament has become an increasingly delicate balancing act because of the global economic crisis and LA Open director Bob Kramer experienced both the highs and the lows at last week's event.

A permanent fixture on the Los Angeles sporting landscape since 1927, the ATP World Tour event boasts a star-studded list of former champions including Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.

Last week's edition, however, failed to attract a single player ranked in the world's top 20 and the long-running men's event took place on the UCLA campus without a title sponsor.

Although fans were lured by 'Golden Oldie' exhibition matches featuring Sampras, Edberg, Jim Courier and Michael Chang, Kramer believes the tournament's future hinges on finding another title sponsor within the next two years.

"We are optimistic that things will change," said Kramer, son of tennis great Jack Kramer. "This is probably only the third time in about 20 years that the tournament hasn't been profitable, so we can be patient.

"Hopefully 2010 will provide a recovery. If not, we are prepared to probably go one more cycle to be back in a position where we can be continuing to generate revenues.

"In our specific case, we are the last local association in America that is running an event like this - a USTA section - and it's not our prime mandate to run a pro tournament.

"We just happened to start one in 1927 to help get the 1932 Olympics to LA and it kept going. If we aren't able to figure this out or if the economy doesn't turn around, I think we will probably have two more bites at the apple to right the ship."

Kramer conceded he had been frustrated not to attract a single marquee player from the top 20 for this year's LA Open. American Mardy Fish (21st, pictured) and top-seeded German Tommy Haas (22nd) were the highest-ranked entries last week.

"Our player budget is over a million dollars and for this year we had the same player budget, even though we didn't have a title sponsor at the time," Kramer said.

"As we always do, we wanted to try and get two or three players in the top 10 and maybe another two or three players in the top 20."

Kramer had felt there was a good chance to attract Briton Andy Murray or Serb Novak Djokovic, along with either Andy Roddick or fellow American James Blake. He had also banked on Argentine Juan Martin del Potro returning to defend his title.

"We went out with this budget of probably a little bit more than half a million dollars and tried for each of those players," Kramer said. "And we didn't get the deal done.

"So when time was running out, we went to Plan B. We were able to bring in four (former) champions - Pete Sampras, Michael Chang, Stefan Edberg and Jim Courier. It has been added value and I think the results will speak for themselves."

Another factor in determining the strength of the field is the overall prize money and the LA Open, as a 250 series event offering $700,000, ranks well below the 500 and 1000 series.

"We applied (for 500 series status) two years ago and I will be honest we were very glad that we didn't get it," Kramer said. "It was financially difficult, as we observed it.

"We have been successful in the past in identifying players who would come to LA under a contract where they would play singles, doubles, make appearances, be here for seven days and they would receive their prize money.

"Under the current strategy on the circuit, prize money has been steadily increased and our margin on player budget has narrowed."

McEnroe, who won the LA Open in 1981 and 1986, felt the tournament had suffered this year because of its time slot.

"This is one of the rare years where I think there's eight weeks between Wimbledon and the US Open," he said. "For a European (player), that makes it a little more difficult.

"And also some of it is politics," McEnroe added, referring to this month's 1000 series event in Cincinnati offering a purse of $3 million.

"If you're asking me where would I rather play a summer tournament, L.A. or Cincinnati, it's not that difficult an answer for me, and it probably wouldn't be for a lot of other players.

"But they (Cincinnati) have a lot more money and they've got more connections. That's why that tournament is there. There's a lot of politics in tennis as well as everything else."

Reuters