IMG’s super agent Max Eisenbud has soured on China. The man who oversaw the careers of Maria Sharapova and Li Na says that the WTA is too heavy in China at the moment.



"I have never been a big believer in the amount of events that are in China,” he told Jon Wertheim on the Beyond the Baseline Podcast. “I think that that was a huge mistake. I think that they, in general, have always [been] led by money, and that's easy for me to say because I'm not in the numbers and see everything but in my world some of the best deals that I've done are deals that I didn't do because of money. And when you start getting into the rabbit hole of making money, you start making some decisions that aren't great."

Eisenbud, who runs the client division of IMG Tennis, says being in China is necessary, but feels that today’s WTA calendar has too many Chinese events.

"I'm not saying they shouldn't be in China. They should be in China -- but it's a lot. Listen I just think there are way too many events in China, but that's my biggest pet peeve with the WTA right now,” he said. "I just am not a big believer in events where, you know, it's 20 and 30 percent capacity. The facilities are amazing but the fans are not there. I just don't know."

Eisenbud stresses that he is not an insider and doesn’t know the ins and outs financially when it comes to the WTA’s long-held relationships in China. He just wants to see more balance. He cites empty stadiums and a general lack of interest from the local populace in many Chinese cities.

"I want to preface it, it's easy for me to say this 30,000 feet away, I'm not looking at the numbers and the budgets, maybe they need that money because it pays for other things and everything,” he said. “I just believe that we're too much in China and some of those events maybe for less could have been in Europe, where some of our great players are there, but yeah that's something that I've always scratched my head about."

"And then, okay we've been there, and we know the issues but then we keep coming back for another tournament or another sanction. You know what I mean? Pretty soon the whole tour is going to be in China."