CARBON Worldwide, the organiser of the WTA Tour BMW Malaysian Open, declared that Venus Williams' withdrawal from an Australian Open warm-up event in Auckland would not affect her participation in the Kuala Lumpur competition.
Venus, who has been receiving treatment for Sjogren's syndrome, stated that she was not ready to compete in Auckland, scheduled next month.
Carbon representative Melvin Chia said a fitter Venus would be competing for the first time in the Malaysian Open.
"Tennis fans here will be in for a treat as Venus will be gunning for her first title on her return to competition," said Melvin yesterday.
Meanwhile, former prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has been named patron of this year's event, scheduled on Feb 27-March 4, at the Bukit Kiara Equestrian & Country Club.
BMW Malaysia managing director Geoffrey Briscoe said: "We are delighted to have Tun Mahathir as the tournament's patron.
"We believe his involvement augurs well for the Malaysian Open as we've set out to augment the Malaysian sports and tourism industry."
The third edition of the event has attracted an international cast of world class players and among them are France's World No 9 Marion Bartoli, Australia's Jelena Dokic and China's Asian Games champion Peng Shuai.
