Tennis: Top players find out director won't Budge

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Over the last few weeks, Karl Budge has had some interesting tasks.

As the ASB Classic and Heineken Open tournament director, he's in charge of two of the biggest annual sporting events in this country, with a budget in the millions. He's responsible for thousands of fans, big corporate sponsors, a team of volunteers in the hundreds - and finding chicken soup for a sick player or a special kind of mineral water for Venus Williams.

"With the players, there's always something to deal with," Budge says. "We sent a driver out for chicken soup last week because one player was feeling unwell and didn't want the catering and Venus only drinks a certain type of mineral water. Caroline [Wozniacki] arrived without many strings - and it was quite hard to find natural gut here - and Daniela Hantuchova wanted to do stand-up paddleboard yoga."

It's that kind of job and you've probably noticed Budge over the last fortnight. Despite working 18-hour days as tournament director, he's the first person there to welcome the players off the court, congratulating the winner and commiserating the vanquished. He's been spotted at the airport - at all hours of the day - to welcome some of the bigger stars and was almost a permanent fixture at the side of Williams for her public appearances.

"My proudest personal achievement is that every player over the last two weeks can say, 'Gidday Karl', whereas they wouldn't know the names of other tournament directors," says Budge. "Relationships are important for the long-term and that's why we get players coming back."

Budge has come a long way for someone who dropped out of Pukekohe High School after fifth form. After a job in telesales - "By far the best learning curve I've ever had" - he did an internship at the Warriors after meeting former CEO Mick Watson at a conference.

"I [told] him I want to be where you are in 10 years ... how do I get there," recalls Budge. "Mick's ego was thankfully larger than mine and he helped me a lot."

From there, Budge spent almost four years at Tennis Australia in top sales roles before heading up business development for the WTA tour, which included setting up the season-ending championships at Istanbul. He got a job at Manchester United - which was stymied by work visa issues - before hearing about the opportunity in Auckland. He left nothing to chance, grabbing references from Maria's Sharapova's agent, the head of the WTA tour and the CEO of the Australian Open.

"I wanted to blow them away and knew no one would be able to match those references," Budge says. "I'm an egotistical chap - I had no interest in applying for a job if I wasn't going to get it. I wanted to go pretty aggressively from the outset and take it out of their hands."

Once he got the job, his goals were clear - take the events to the next level.

"It was like a was a Toyota Camry - it would get you from A to B, reliable, did its job," he says. "But I thought it could be so much more. I wanted to turn it into a BMW."

Budge has given the tournaments a more upmarket feel and rebranded them as the New Zealand Festival of Tennis. He's introduced separate night sessions and a whole range of different food and drink options, in an attempt to create a 'mini Australian Open'.

Not everything has been popular - his detractors would say the event is too focused on the 'beautiful people' - but there's no doubt the profile of both tournaments have lifted significantly.

"I love this sport and it has been good to me," he says. "I've spent my whole adult life chasing fluffy balls ... and I think I'll be doing it for a bit longer yet."