ATP and WTA: is “ONE Tennis” coming now?
The two professional tennis associations have hired two financial companies to examine the prospects of a merger between ATP and WTA.
by Ilya Portnoy
last edit:
Dec 10, 2021, 03:26 pm
It has been a long time since Roger Federer posted an at first glance inconspicuous tweet in which he suggested that men's and women's tennis should merge. Without any apparent success. The reactions to the proposal were overwhelming, with greats like Rafael Nadal and Billie Jean King expressing their encouragement.
However, the discontinuation of the joint ATP / WTA Live Scores app was, on the contrary, a step backwards for that endeavor. This made it even more difficult to get a quick overview of the results on both tours. The adjustment of the tournament categories for women in the direction of 1000s, 500s, etc. is also lacking in consistency, as the original point distribution remained, so that, for example, in a “WTA 250 event”, for example, incomprehensibly, there are still 280 points to be won.
A lot of money in the game and Formula 1 as a role model
But now there is apparently movement in the matter. As Sky News reports, ATP and WTA have asked financial advisors Rothschild and Allen & Co to examine the prospects for a merger. The envisaged end product should be called "ONE Tennis". This should be a joint company that uniformly distributes the rights for women and men tours. For this purpose, one relies on an investment by the financial company CVC Capital Partners, which is to hold a sum of 600 million US dollars. CVC has already made investments in Formula 1 in the past and sometimes strives to do business with the highest Spanish football league.
The representatives of the players' associations have been in talks since June, when they published a joint statement asserting that they are constantly looking for new ways "to bring the sport closer together". CVC sees great potential to overcome the pandemic-related losses more quickly by merging the tours. In particular, a common tournament calendar is planned.
The different reactions to the Peng Shuai case show that the WTA and ATP are currently far from having the same opinion on all issues. While WTA boss Steve Simon has canceled all upcoming tournaments in China, Andrea Gaudenzi (ATP) has not taken any steps for the time being.