Toronto - Boris Becker expressed hopes on Monday that the ill-tempered lawsuit which began between the Hamburg Masters and the ATP can be settled without bringing more ill-will to tennis. "I'm not involved in the details," said the 40-year-old former player who along with Steffi Graf kick-started the game to mass popularity in Germany two decades ago.
While that all-star pair dominated into the 1990s, tennis soared in popularity before falling back to earth at home upon their retirements.
"Obviously I support the German Tennis Federation, but I can't tell you the latest scope of who's wrong and right and so forth. I just hope they solve it for the best," said Becker, due to be inducted into a Hall of Fame as a past champion at the Toronto Masters.
The Hamburg tournament, through the federation (DTB) is claiming in a Delaware court that by downgrading the event, the ATP is running a monopoly.
American lawyers for the German side will argue in front of a jury that the ATP has created an anti-competitive marketplace through planned calendar shake-ups for next season adversely affecting Hamburg.
At stake in an action worth more than 75 million dollars is the issue of whether a sanctioning body has the right to draw up a schedule over the objection of members. Negotiations to settle before a court date have failed, according to both sides.
Under a plan for a revamp of the men's game from next January, Hamburg was stripped of elite Masters status and relegated as a regular event in last July, a date which German organisers say would be impossible to turn a profit.
Becker said he wished Hamburg tournament director Carl-Uwe Steeb good luck when he saw him last week in Europe.
"Once you go for trial there's bound to be a winner and a loser," said Becker "I don't think that's so good.
"Hopefully the two sides will find a way before there is a final verdict to find a solution.
"But at the moment obviously both parties couldn't agree with each other beforehand, so that's why they all went to trial and looked for an answer that way.
"It's not ideal. It's not perfect."
Should the ATP lose, the future management of the men's game could be in some doubt and the fate of supremo Etienne de Villiers could also be in the balance.
