from Canadian Press

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Organizers have scrapped a tennis tournament pitting former world No. 1 players from the Americas against their European counterparts, saying Malaysian promoters had not coughed up funds for the event.

The "Kings of Tennis" competition had been scheduled to run in Malaysia's northern resort island of Penang on Nov. 14-16 with a prestigious lineup that included Roy Emerson, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Bjorn Borg and Stefan Edberg.

However, tournament producer Lasse Olsson said in an e-mailed statement received Wednesday that the Stockholm-based organizers have "removed the players from participating" and notified the Malaysian promoters that the event was off.

"We simply could not provide the players without payment of promised funds that did not materialize despite a number of ultimatums given" to organizers, the statement said.

The Malaysian event organizing company could not immediately be contacted.

Organizers announced in August that eight tennis legends would compete in singles and doubles matches representing their continents. The other players were to be Marcelo Rios, Ilie Nastase and Mats Wilander, and the tournament would have been broadcast live in more than 40 countries.

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