The possibility of the men’s and women’s Tour’s being combined into one for the first time in history appears to have taken a significant step after it was reported that the governing bodies will attend a two-day summit on the matter.
In a report published by The Telegraph newspaper, executives and tournament representatives will gather together at the end of this month in London to weigh up the possibility of a merger. Although it is expected that no decision will be made at the time. The purpose of the summit is to look at what options are available.
In recent years numerous players, including Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, have spoken in favour of creating one body that oversees both the men’s and women’s Tour’s. Tennis currently has seven separate governing bodies – the ATP, WTA, ITF and each of the four Grand Slam events has its own management. Supporters of such a move argue that combining these would remove some barriers currently in existence and enable there to be a standard structure for everybody in the sport.
Andrea Gaudenzi is the CEO of the ATP and has made his pro-merger stance clear on multiple occasions. In a recent interview with Forbes, Gaudenzi said he would like to see ‘men and women together’ when asked what his future vision for tennis would look like.
“My vision would technically look like a similar structure as the ATP and WTA, but men and women together, including Slams.” He said.
“So you have 50% of the representation with the slams as well. So you have 50% of player representation. Out of that half is women, half of that is men. The other 50% is tournaments, including Grand Slams, Masters, and all the other categories. ‘
“That governance basically makes the best decision in terms of men and women, tennis players and tournaments. Because only if you have the entirety under your responsibility, can do the best job.”
It is speculated that the upcoming talks have been spurred on by a potential threat from Saudi Arabia who will host the ATP Next Gen finals later this year in what will be their first Tour-level event. Officials want to avoid a similar situation to what happened in golf when the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Tour started in competition with the PGA Tour before a shock merger occurred in June. Saudi Arabia has also presented an offer to host the WTA Finals but they are now reportedly no longer the frontrunner due to concerns about the nation who are accused of sportswashing.
Bringing tennis together is a very complicated matter and any merger would take months. Each governing body has its own commercial partners and TV rights. Furthermore, the financial situation of both is very different. ProPublica, a nonprofit organization based in New York, reported that the ATP made $176.8 million in revenue for the 2021 season compared to the WTA Tour’s tally of $87.8 million.
The Telegraph estimates that male players earn roughly 75% more than their female peers despite equal prize money being implemented at all Grand Slams. Should a merger occur, there could be a redistribution of finances to ensure that all players receive the same. Something which could become problematic.
Neither the ATP nor WTA are yet to comment on the upcoming summit.
