November 5, 2025 • 6 mins
Venus Williams is returning for a seventh ASB Tennis Classic.
The 45-year-old played the US Open in August and joins the likes of Naomi Osaka and Lulu Sun as confirmed entries.
Tournament director Nicolas Lamperin joined D'Arcy to discuss.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Waldegrave
from News Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
He Speak Classic is the subject of the program, and
now we go to the man who runs the show,
the tournament director, Nico A. Lamp Run, on the back
of the news that Venus Williams is coming to town. Niko,
welcome to the show. Another great catch for your organization.
She's forty five. But man, the history of this woman
has got How easy was it to get a back
(00:35):
here again?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
It was not something that I was expecting, to be fair,
and to tell you the full story, I was in
the US over the summer scouting some players, trying to
work on the player field for next year, and I
happened to watch a lot of the matches that the
Venues was playing, and to be fair, I was amazed
by by the level she was displaying on court. It's
(00:59):
not really something that I was expecting. And you know,
she played in DC and then Cincinnati US Open, so
you know, it also looked like she was getting serious
again about you know, having another go at at tennis.
And you know, straight away I made contact with the
team and offered a wild card into the tournament for
(01:22):
for next year. The reality is at this stage, you know,
she wasn't really sure what her plans would be for
twenty twenty six, so they were silent for probably a
month or two, and then two weeks ago they made
contact again and told me that, you know, she would
love to come back to Walklands, so we made it happen.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Then that's a great tale. Well you're not going to
tell me, but I'll ask anyway expensive to get a
marquee player like that across the line?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Not really, you know, I was it was it was
a really fair deal for for all parties. So yeah,
very very happy to spend this for someone of of
petty greed.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So she got a wild card, So she goes straight on,
and what's your expectations around after you've watch to play?
How fast she goes, how deep she goes. Is she
a clear and present danger to the field.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
It's difficult to say she'll be unseated, and you never
know who she's going to draw in the first run.
But I would say if she wins a match or two,
then she can become a danger and potentially go really
fine in the draw. So it's all about how she
starts in the tournament, whether she managed to get some
(02:34):
of her rhythm and confidence back, and if she does so,
then she would have a really good chance of going far.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
You keep announcing players, it's a lovely build up towards summer.
You've got quite a few, and you quiver, how many
more are you expecting as far as big names and
more'st the point, how many more spaces have you got
available around? What names you can bring on as far
as part top ten, top twenty, and so on and
so forth.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
We're expecting another four announcements during the months of November,
knowing that we release the fields for the women's the
second week of December and the men's the third week
of November. So by the time we make those announcements
then all the spots that we have available will will
(03:22):
be filled in.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
What are the limitations now around the men's and women's
draw Who can't you have?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
There are no limitation whatsoever. On the men's side. We
can approach anyone we want. On the women's side, it's
a different story. We now allowed any top ten and
we have two exemptions between eleven and thirty.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Why is that particularly, what's the logic behind that?
Speaker 3 (03:48):
It's a good question and you know sometimes that with
some something that we're still trying to challenge the tour
about because we don't think it's really fair on the
two fifties. I think the reasoning was to reinforce participation
for the top talents at the thousand and the five hundreds,
(04:09):
and and trying to limit the impact that you know,
appearance fees can have in in the lower tournaments that
don't don't know, for the same level of prize money.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Easier is it going on? How much easier Niko, is
it going to be to attrace higher means seeds and
you've got open slather there once you get your roof
stuck on, because that's that's eminent. That's soon.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yeah, it's coming soon, and you know, we we're hoping
to complete the roundom of funding but by the end
of this year and then we can go into the
next phase, which is the actual work. I think it's
it's going to give more more confidence to the players
in general around the playing conditions. We've had issues with
(04:54):
with rain over the years, and something that keeps coming
back as well in all of those discussions is the wind.
You know, the players struggle with the wind and there's
there's always been this this kind of talk in the
players room that Auckland was a windy place and it
was difficult to play there. So once we have the
roof in place, I think it will give a lot
(05:15):
more confidence to the players that this is the right
place to be ahead of yours train open you expected.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
To be fully operational by the event in twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
There's a chance there's a possibility for twenty seven, but
I would think that it's more realistic to look at
twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
This one last thing when it comes to Venus Williams
seventh appearance now in Auckland, she's managed to pick it
up as well, so this is great. What was their
do to your bottom line as far as ticket sales
are concerned. I know people buy tickets because it's a
big event in Auckland summer, but does this add to
your bottom line and the amount of money you can
(05:57):
bring in for the tournament?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
You know, it's not so much about the bottom line.
It's about putting the best event possible in in New
Zealand and you know, promote tennis. At the end of
the day. You know, the organization is nonprofit, so any
money that is being made through the tournament is reinvested
into the game of tennis and this is what we
(06:23):
want to do every single year.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
For more from sports talk, listen live to news Talks.
It'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Waldegrave
from News Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
He Speak Classic is the subject of the program, and
now we go to the man who runs the show,
the tournament director, Nico A. Lamp Run, on the back
of the news that Venus Williams is coming to town. Niko,
welcome to the show. Another great catch for your organization.
She's forty five. But man, the history of this woman
has got How easy was it to get a back
(00:35):
here again?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
It was not something that I was expecting, to be fair,
and to tell you the full story, I was in
the US over the summer scouting some players, trying to
work on the player field for next year, and I
happened to watch a lot of the matches that the
Venues was playing, and to be fair, I was amazed
by by the level she was displaying on court. It's
(00:59):
not really something that I was expecting. And you know,
she played in DC and then Cincinnati US Open, so
you know, it also looked like she was getting serious
again about you know, having another go at at tennis.
And you know, straight away I made contact with the
team and offered a wild card into the tournament for
(01:22):
for next year. The reality is at this stage, you know,
she wasn't really sure what her plans would be for
twenty twenty six, so they were silent for probably a
month or two, and then two weeks ago they made
contact again and told me that, you know, she would
love to come back to Walklands, so we made it happen.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Then that's a great tale. Well you're not going to
tell me, but I'll ask anyway expensive to get a
marquee player like that across the line?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Not really, you know, I was it was it was
a really fair deal for for all parties. So yeah,
very very happy to spend this for someone of of
petty greed.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So she got a wild card, So she goes straight on,
and what's your expectations around after you've watch to play?
How fast she goes, how deep she goes. Is she
a clear and present danger to the field.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
It's difficult to say she'll be unseated, and you never
know who she's going to draw in the first run.
But I would say if she wins a match or two,
then she can become a danger and potentially go really
fine in the draw. So it's all about how she
starts in the tournament, whether she managed to get some
(02:34):
of her rhythm and confidence back, and if she does so,
then she would have a really good chance of going far.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
You keep announcing players, it's a lovely build up towards summer.
You've got quite a few, and you quiver, how many
more are you expecting as far as big names and
more'st the point, how many more spaces have you got
available around? What names you can bring on as far
as part top ten, top twenty, and so on and
so forth.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
We're expecting another four announcements during the months of November,
knowing that we release the fields for the women's the
second week of December and the men's the third week
of November. So by the time we make those announcements
then all the spots that we have available will will
(03:22):
be filled in.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
What are the limitations now around the men's and women's
draw Who can't you have?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
There are no limitation whatsoever. On the men's side. We
can approach anyone we want. On the women's side, it's
a different story. We now allowed any top ten and
we have two exemptions between eleven and thirty.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Why is that particularly, what's the logic behind that?
Speaker 3 (03:48):
It's a good question and you know sometimes that with
some something that we're still trying to challenge the tour
about because we don't think it's really fair on the
two fifties. I think the reasoning was to reinforce participation
for the top talents at the thousand and the five hundreds,
(04:09):
and and trying to limit the impact that you know,
appearance fees can have in in the lower tournaments that
don't don't know, for the same level of prize money.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Easier is it going on? How much easier Niko, is
it going to be to attrace higher means seeds and
you've got open slather there once you get your roof
stuck on, because that's that's eminent. That's soon.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yeah, it's coming soon, and you know, we we're hoping
to complete the roundom of funding but by the end
of this year and then we can go into the
next phase, which is the actual work. I think it's
it's going to give more more confidence to the players
in general around the playing conditions. We've had issues with
(04:54):
with rain over the years, and something that keeps coming
back as well in all of those discussions is the wind.
You know, the players struggle with the wind and there's
there's always been this this kind of talk in the
players room that Auckland was a windy place and it
was difficult to play there. So once we have the
roof in place, I think it will give a lot
(05:15):
more confidence to the players that this is the right
place to be ahead of yours train open you expected.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
To be fully operational by the event in twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
There's a chance there's a possibility for twenty seven, but
I would think that it's more realistic to look at
twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
This one last thing when it comes to Venus Williams
seventh appearance now in Auckland, she's managed to pick it
up as well, so this is great. What was their
do to your bottom line as far as ticket sales
are concerned. I know people buy tickets because it's a
big event in Auckland summer, but does this add to
your bottom line and the amount of money you can
(05:57):
bring in for the tournament?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
You know, it's not so much about the bottom line.
It's about putting the best event possible in in New
Zealand and you know, promote tennis. At the end of
the day. You know, the organization is nonprofit, so any
money that is being made through the tournament is reinvested
into the game of tennis and this is what we
(06:23):
want to do every single year.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
For more from sports talk, listen live to news Talks.
It'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
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