The idea to combine the men’s and women’s tennis tours have been in talks for a while now. Players have spoken in favor of a joint tour before. But now Andrea Gaudenzi, Chairman of the ATP, has confirmed that there is a possibility that the two tours may merge.
There is no doubt that the Big Three (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic) are the biggest attractions in the sport of tennis. But at some point, they are not going to be on the scene. WTA stars such as Naomi Osaka and future star Coco Gauff are commercial markers already, so a joint tour is a great hedge for the long term.
On The Tennis Channel, Gaudenzi said “I think it is a great strength of our sport to have a very strong women’s product. I think it’s a unique selling point. Our biggest events are combined and fans want to see both. I truly believe we need to start selling, packaging and distributing the product as one because they take place on the same timeline. Starting from January and until the end of the year “.
Gaudenzi confirmed that contact between the two organizations exists and is constant. He continued “We are working closely with the WTA. We now have a common marketing and social media department. We are also trying to aggregate commercial rights, so it is progress ”.
Andrea Gaudenzi-words have been promising so far
Roger Federer brought up the idea of a possible ATP-WTA merge.
Credits: Getty Images
The merging of the two tours has been making waves throughout the sport. It’s not a new concept and the obstacles have been insurmountable for decades. The idea was first proposed by Roger Federer, which was support by Rafael Nadal and Stanislas Wawrinka as well. However, the main concern will be the execution. There are a lot of questions to be answered and only time will tell.
Hopefully, the merger will materialize soon, and fans will experience a new era of tennis. Until then, there is no choice but to enjoy the ATP and WTA events separately.
