After three years of emptiness, the ASB Tennis Arena will come back to life in the next fortnight. Photosport
The ASB Classic is back, for the first time since 2020. Michael Burgess meets the new man at the helm and looks at the challenges in rebuilding New Zealand’s biggest annual sporting event.
ASB Classic tournament director Nicolas Lamperin has put away his running shoes for a fortnight.
In normal times Lamperin starts most days with a seven or eight kilometre jog – “to clear the head” – but these are not normal times.
Lamperin will barely have a spare minute over the next fortnight, as he oversees the return of New Zealand’s biggest annual sporting event.
The ASB Classic is back, after a Covid-enforced hiatus, which saw the 2021 and 2022 editions cancelled.
Getting it going again has been a huge task, accentuated by changes in the landscape since it was last on.
Almost all of the tournament operations staff have moved on, while relationships with players and key stakeholders have had to be rebuilt, after more than two years of inactivity.
Costs have also risen significantly.
If that’s not enough, Lamperin is stepping into the shoes of Karl Budge, who was the tournament director for nine years between 2013 and 2020 and helped to transform the event into something that resonated far beyond centre court.
“There have been a few challenges, for sure,” Lamperin tells the Herald on Sunday. “But that was always going to be the case.”
When Lamperin started in May, the first priority was reconnecting with sponsors.
“Most of them had been kept in the dark for the last two years,” says Lamperin. “We needed to make sure that they were still interested.”
They were.
Almost all of the commercial partners have been retained, along with the addition of some new ones.
“We’ve gone up 25 per cent,” says Lamperin.
The other immediate imperative was rebuilding the team, with only one member of the management staff left from 2020.
New personnel were brought onboard, from different events or sports marketing agencies.
There were other mechanics, including a new television deal. There were discussions with most of the major players (Sky Sport, Spark Sport, TVNZ and Newshub) before a contract was signed with the incumbent Sky.
It’s on less favourable terms than previously – “it has been extremely challenging” - and also means the tournament is picking up the majority of production costs.
That has led to Lamperin flying in an eight-strong production crew from Italy for the fortnight.
“The local solution was too expensive for us,” admits Lamperin. “And [the Italians] have great experience, they are an official WTA partner and work with the ATP. So we know what we are getting.”
The ASB Classic is famous for its food – one of the few tournaments in the world with courtside dining – but sorting the catering has been another significant task.
“The previous partner went down after Covid,” says Lamperin. “So we’ve had to work with a new partner and go through all the menus and offerings. That’s been a pretty big piece.”
There has also been controversy over the potential presence of Russian or Belarussian players. While Lamperin didn’t pursue individuals from those countries, they are allowed to enter.
“We just follow the regulations from the tour, which they made very clear,” says Lamperin. “And that’s it. As long as there isn’t restriction from a local government, they can play.”
Lamperin is a tennis nut.
Growing up in Rennes, in northwest France, he always wanted to become a professional player. At the age of 16 – already losing interest in his studies – he cut a deal with his parents to move to a bigger tennis centre, so he could train and play every day.
It was one of the biggest clubs in France – with the likes of former top-20 players Fabrice Santoro and Sebastian Grosjean milling around – and one of the best in Europe. For the wide-eyed Lamperin, it was nirvana, and he later interned for the team captain, who worked for the French Tennis Federation, based at Roland Garros.
Though he was destined not to make it on the court – “sadly, I never had the talent to do so” – he was building a formidable network inside the game, getting to know legions of French players and coaches.
After his studies, that led to a job with IMG – “because I had that level of relationship within French tennis” – as a player agent.
His most famous client is Gael Monfils, who he has looked after for 16 years. Monfils was a teenage prodigy, winning three junior grand slams in 2004. He ended that season as the world’s No 1 junior, while his ATP ranking had jumped 700 places, to the cusp of the top 200, just past his 18th birthday.
“He had just signed a really big deal with Nike,” says Lamperin. “All of the agents were after Gael. It was a tough time for him because he could see all the interest from everybody.”
Lamperin persevered, getting to know the teenager over the next 18 months, in a series of formal – and not so formal – meetings.
“Gael was very young at that time,” says Lamperin. “So to speak about 30 minutes of business sometimes I had to spend a full day doing whatever it was, whether it was PlayStation or whatever else. But that’s the kind of thing you have to go through as an agent.”
Monfils eventually inked terms with IMG – and then followed Lamperin to other agencies.
“He’s not the kind of guy who would give you his trust easily,” says Lamperin. “But once you have it, you really have it. We have a very close relationship.”
Across his career Lamperin has also represented Stan Wawrinka, Marion Bartoli, Richard Gasquet, Arnaud Clement, Guy Forget, Grosjean, as well as colourful Australian Bernard Tomic, who he concedes was an “interesting one”.
How did he deal with those kind of challenges?
“Just the same way that you deal with all the other players,” says Lamperin. “But there’s also some limits. And when there’s behaviour that cannot be accepted, then you need to tell them and sometimes you need to terminate the relationship.”
Life as a tennis agent “isn’t relaxed, but it’s pretty fair”. Lamperin has friends working in football, which is a “different world”.
Though the ASB Classic role is all consuming, Lamperin retains two clients through his agency, Monfils and fellow French player Kristina Mladenovic.
Is it a conflict of interest?
Lamperin doesn’t think so. He says it helps his relationships in the tennis world and adds that there would be no financials from his side, should one of his players come to Auckland. As a further example, Mladenovic asked for an Auckland wildcard but was turned down.
From a public perspective, the most important aspect of Lamperin’s job is assembling a field.
With a limited budget – Auckland generally pays appearance fees to four women and four men – getting the names you want requires planning, strategy, persistence and sometimes a bit of luck.
Lamperin has delivered.
There are a quartet of marquee females – headlined by American world No 7 Coco Gauff and Britain’s Emma Raducanu, who made grand slam history in 2021 by becoming the first qualifier to win the US Open.
The men’s draw is even stronger, with three top-15 players, including world No 3 Casper Ruud and a main draw cut off at 65.
Lamperin watches a lot of tennis and follows the scores “every day, several times a day”.
He gets information “from everywhere” and his background is also advantageous.
“I know how I would sell my players to a tournament,” he says. “So whenever I’m having a discussion with the agents, I’m not actually surprised about what they are saying, or the way they want to sell it to me. I like to think I can anticipate the next move or where they want to take that discussion, which I believe is in my favour.”
Getting Ruud was a bona fide coup, made possible by an early move.
The Norwegian was signed ahead of the French Open in May, when he was world No 10. He then made the Roland Garros final, then did the same at New York, which may have taken him out of range.
“When I was looking at Casper, I’ve always thought he would be between seven and 10. I didn’t necessarily see that he will be a top five or top three player at that point. So we’re extremely fortunate and grateful that he’s played that way”
On the other hand, Lamperin hedged his bets with Raducanu, waiting until after the US Open, when her ranking dropped dramatically after the points accrued from the 2021 title came off, to proffer a deal. The strategy worked.
“It’s not gambling – it’s more based on experience and knowledge - but you have to take some risks,” said Lamperin. “And we know exactly what we can afford and what we can’t afford. When we make offers to players, we’ve got to do it within reason and within our budget.”
His player recruitment strategy is built around three pillars: marquee names, players with a relationship with the tournament and up and coming talent. That led to him signing Czech teenager Linda Fruhvirtova and offering a wildcard to her younger sister Brenda.
“I’m pretty sure both will be top 10 In the near future,” says Lamperin. “So it’s important to get in as early as possible. And we hope they will remember that they made a debut in Auckland.”
Succeeding Budge isn’t easy. During his long tenure, the ASB Classic fortnight was reshaped massively.
It became much more than a tennis tournament – with Budge’s regularly-stated vision to create a mini Australian Open – reflected in the different food and entertainment options and the celebrities, as Stanley Street became the place to be seen.
Budge delivered plenty of big names, including Serena and Venus Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, Naomi Osaka, Ana Ivanovic, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Denis Shapovalov.
Both tournaments were recognised with awards from the governing bodies (ATP and WTA) while tickets sales more than trebled across his tenure.
Surely that’s a hard act to follow?
“I don’t really see it that way,” says Lamperin. “I have a lot of respect for Karl, and I’ve known him for many years. We obviously have very different personalities. And I think we operate in very different ways. But at the same time, I’m actually very grateful about what he built. Because I’m convinced that the tournament has some solid foundations.”
Sources say that while Budge was always front and centre, Lamperin is happier to operate in the background. They added that the Frenchman is more structured and likely to follow processes, while Budge, in his constant search for innovation and a grand vision, could be less so, but had a habit of pulling off things that many others thought weren’t possible.
Budge is understandably proud of his legacy – “it became an event that wasn’t just for tennis people” – but was reluctant to discuss the tournament.
“I want to give them clear air, I’m old news with that event now… or I need to be,” says Budge. “I’m good friends with Nico and I just want to be a supporter in any way I can, from afar.”
The litmus test starts today and signs are encouraging.
Advance ticket sales are healthy – comparable to 2020, when 17 of 20 sessions sold out – which reflects a latent desire for top-class tennis, as well as everything else around the event.
“We need to build excitement on the court,” says Lamperin. “Good matchups. Good level of play. But we also know that when people come to the tournament, they’ll experience the food and beverage offerings, the other entertainment. It’s a full-day experience.”
Rebuilding the infrastructure has been a massive undertaking, as has forging new relationships with stakeholders and partners, after so long.
But Lamperin is optimistic.
“People have missed it,” says Lamperin. “So there’s been a really strong interest, whether it’s ticket sales or corporate sales, for people to come back. We’ve been pretty amazed by the response.
“Our mission for 2023 is to make sure that the model still works, despite all the challenges. A lot of the costs have increased, 25 to 30 per cent, if you think about staffing, security or food supplies, and so these are a pretty significant impact on the economic model of the tournament.
“So our priority is to deliver a great event this year, demonstrate that the model that we’ve had over the years still works, and trying to build on that.”
And then, eventually, find the time for a run or two.
Even at age 38, the world No 55 is a huge drawcard for the Auckland tournament.