The head of Tennis Australia says discussions of a premium Tour similar to that of Formula One coming to tennis have been on the table for a few years but admits there is still a lot of work to do.
Craig Tiley confirmed on Monday that there are currently no plans for the seven governing bodies of the sport to hold a meeting on the matter during next month’s Australian Open. A recent report from The Athletic has claimed that the four Grand Slam events are aiming to join together and form partnerships with roughly 10 of the biggest tournaments to establish a super Tour. Critics argue that the current structure isn’t as effective as it should be with millions left on the table.
Such a move would help protect the major events from any threat from Saudi Arabia who staged the ATP Next Gen Finals last week and has their eyes set on holding more prestigious events. There had been talk of the country potentially hosting a Masters 1000 or a combined event at the start of the year which would have a significant impact on the Australian Open warm-up events.
“The premium tour for the future of the sport has been on the table for quite a few years, and getting the sport motivated and activated to look at it more openly is something that is continuing to happen, which is exciting,” Fox Sports Australia quoted Tiley as saying on Monday.
“I think there’s a lot of work that’s got to be done, [and] a lot of parties have got to come together, but there is a big opportunity for the sport of tennis to deliver a product in a more co-ordinated, premium way.
“There have been attempts to do it for years, but the grand slams have done extremely well in this [premium] environment and continue to do well, and they are the times in the year when the players mobilise because this is where they want to make their most money, but also get their biggest profile globally.”
It is unclear as to how the WTA and ATP could be persuaded to relinquish some or all of their ownership of their biggest events which generates the highest amount of revenue for them. In recent years the ATP has expanded the majority of their Masters 1000 events to 10 days.
However, a more streamlined calendar would help prevent fatigue or injury among players and could potentially make it easier for fans to follow the sport. The CEO of the ATP, Andrea Gaudenzi, has stated that one of his goals is to narrow the gap between the Masters and major events.
“We want to grow our premium product, and that’s a fact that we’ve been very vocal about,” Gaudenzi recently told a group of journalists in Italy. “For the sport, closing the gap between the Masters and the Slams is good for everybody. Now, there is a very big gap.”
As for the players, America’s Taylor Fritz has lent his backing to the idea of a Premium Tour being developed by arguing that there will be more positives than negatives to such a concept.
“It’s a really good idea, and I think that we should have separate tours,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Fritz as saying.
“If you’re on the main, top tour, you should be set to play all the big events, and they should all be slightly bigger-draw events to get basically everybody in the top 100 in, and I think that’s honestly all we should play.
“You can have 14 marquee events, and it makes tennis easy to follow for fans because all you have to pay attention to is those tournaments. There’s no people getting tons of points in between events, at like 250s and 500s [level], and more than anything, there’s no crazy schedule for us players.”
A major shake-up of the sport is unlikely to occur in the coming months with the 2024 calendars already being confirmed.
