Coco Gauff, Alejandro Tabilo, Emma Raducanu, Ben Shelton Photo: Getty
The sun has set over another edition of Aotearoa's only ATP/WTA event, with Chilean Alejandro Tabilo taking out the men's ASB Classic title at Stanley Street. He joins Coco Gauff as 2024 champion but, as always, it's already time to speculate on what next year's tournament will look like. Here's the key takeaways from this year and what we can expect going forward:
Queens of the court
Coco Gauff of USA celebrates with the trophy after winning the Women's singles final match against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine during the 2024 Women's ASB Classic. Photo: Hannah Peters
It's fair to say the women's tournament will stick in the memories longer than the men's. The two top seeds battled out a three-set final, with both Gauff and Elina Svitolina showing class and determination all the way through. While Caroline Wozniacki only played one match, unfortunately drawing Svitolina in the first round, she still put in an impressive shift.
Redemption for Raducanu
Emma Raducanu of Great Britain plays a shot in her match against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine during the 2024 Women's ASB Classic. Photo: David Rowland
Not many people would have predicted that Emma Raducanu would be back in Auckland after her now-infamous visit last year. Not only did she come back, but the former US Open champion played her part in a contender for the best match in the history of the women's tournament. Raducanu ultimately fell to Svitolina in that clash but the mutual experience of her visit more than made up for the injury-blemished 2023 disaster.
Big names out before the men's final
Alejandro Tabilo of Chile celebrates his singles final win against Taro Daniel of Japan at the ASB Classic tennis tournament. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/Photosport
Alejandro Tabilo took out the men's tournament with a solid 6-2 7-5 win over Taro Daniel in the final, but it's likely both men's Wikipedia pages would have been getting a fair degree of hits in the lead up. Both were unseeded, with Tabilo coming through qualifying, so Friday's semi finals were the first time either had even been on centre court. Most were anticipating a showdown between big serving American Ben Shelton and hometown hopeful Cam Norrie, but Shelton was upset by Daniel in a straight sets semi final loss. Meanwhile, Norrie didn't even take the court at all in his quarter final, handing Tabilo a walkover and invaluable rest for his semi final upset of Arthur Fils.
Don't be cheapskates, Sky
Sky decided to save some coin by not employing local commentators, a move that backfired spectacularly in the opening minutes of the tournament's broadcast. The international feed, given by a commentary team in London, made one of the worst butcherings of te reo Māori you'll ever hear trying to describe the opening pōwhiri and made a fantastic case overall as to why bland, governing body-provided punditry needs to be avoided vehemently.
Hospitality remains unmatched
It didn't matter too much who was playing, the spectators certainly showed up in droves and were well looked after by the food and drink options. The tournament's entertainment area now stretches all the way up into the Domain and enhances its reputation as the place to be in January every year.
The sun came out
The big attendance was obviously helped by an almost complete reversal in the weather from last year, which was on par with Raducanu's 180-degree turn in enjoyment. Last year's tournament was mostly played indoors, but this time we only had to endure a couple of short rain delays in the women's tournament and none at all in the men's. So while usually there's talk of a roof getting put on Stanley Street, right now it's pretty hard to imagine an ASB Classic not being played in the warm sunshine.
Will the big names keep coming?
Event Director Nicolas Lamperin speaking during a media conference prior to the start of the ASB Classic Tennis Tournament. Photo: Dave Rowland
However, the other eternal question of what next year's field will be like remains as well. To his great credit tournament director Nicolas Lamperin has been able to not only pick up where his predecessor Karl Budge left off but improve the quality of the fields. Looming on the horizon is the growing threat of Saudi sports interests snatching away all the top talent, a situation that tennis is not alone in having a part in. Lamperin's experience as a player agent and the tournament's unique pulling power can only go so far in comparison to the bottomless money pit a tournament in Riyadh at the same time could dip into.
Kiss Cam remains undefeated
The original fan interaction device, Kiss Cam was in full effect over the fortnight at Stanley Street. It played its part in a number of potentially life-changing moments of passion caught on the big screen: from tentative first dates, rekindling of stale marriages and the rare but memorable public display of an obvious workplace affair. Well done to all that participated.