Tennis: ATP, WTA, Grand Slam and Premium Tours in talks, what role will Saudi Arabia play?

There are a few things that tennis’s seven governing bodies agree on.

The season is too long and we need more compelling stories throughout the year. And ideally, only one dominant force should make the decision.

But the future can come in many shapes and sizes.

There is also a proposal for a premium tour, which could issue just 64 tour cards each year, culminating in a promotion and relegation play-off.

And Saudi Arabia’s involvement is likely to expand.

The WTA Finals will be held in the Saudi capital Riyadh every three years from now on, and Saudi Arabia could qualify for the ATP Tour’s Masters 1000 event by the end of the back-to-back meetings in Madrid this week.

There are nine Masters 1,000 events on the ATP Tour, but the creation of a 10th event, originally scheduled for the first week of the year or on the grass in front of Wimbledon, has accelerated significantly in recent months.

Saudi Arabia has already qualified for the Next Generation ATP Finals, the final event of the season that brings together the world’s best under-21 players, along with the WTA Finals, and has made its ambitions to host the Masters 1,000 very real. It’s clear.

Last month, ATP issued invitations to bid to Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi and Australia.

The bidding deadline is this Wednesday, hours before the ATP board begins a two-day meeting to identify a winner or select a second round of bids.

Even if a successful applicant is selected, it may take at least 18 months to select a date on the calendar for events that do not begin before 2027.

It is very likely that it will be in January or February. Holding the event in Saudi Arabia in the first week of this year would be seen as a hostile move by Tennis Australia. It will no longer be able to hold United Cup team matches and will lose its star male cast in the two weeks leading up to the Australian Open.

Although being held in Saudi Arabia in February would not pose any problems for Tennis Australia, it could jeopardize the survival of the traditional European indoor and South American clay events held at that time of year. There is.

Another complication is that, if successful, Saudi Arabia would like to hold joint events with women. There are currently no further licenses available for WTA 1,000 events and existing owners, including those in Doha and Dubai, will have a veto on expansion plans unless the licenses are sold.

The premium tour proposal has been described by opponents as an “extreme and very aggressive alternative” to expanding Saudi investment.

This was the brainchild of Tennis Australia and its chief executive Craig Tiley, who was concerned about the threat the Saudi Masters in the first week of January posed to Australia’s tennis summer.

After some discreet initial meetings between the Grand Slams, including one in London the week before this year’s Australian Open, all vested interests were invited to a summit in Indian Wells in March.

The talks are best remembered as the intervention of ATP president Andrea Gaudenzi, who revealed a $1.3 billion (£1.05 billion) alternative offer from Saudi Arabia, as first reported by the Telegraph.

It’s hard to quantify how much that offer was actually worth to the sport. The bid is primarily for the 1,000-competition tournament, and is understood to include several years’ worth of prize money, and may also include elements of a WTA Finals contract.

That offer is no longer on the table as the ATP bidding process has begun and Riyadh has been confirmed to host the WTA Finals. But the way it was introduced into the meeting ended up being abysmal in the Grand Slams.

But since then, the discussions have become more collaborative and friendly. Gaudenzi, WTA president and chief executive Steve Simon and the presidents of the four major tournaments have recently started meeting more regularly, and the ATP and WTA will hold a joint tournament meeting in Madrid this week. This is the first time that anyone can remember.

Various models of Premium Tours (also known as Premier Tours) have been announced. But broadly speaking, the prototype calls for a streamlined season featuring four Grand Slams and just 10 to 11 other events, plus the post-season Tour Finals, Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup. It was being done.

All events will be held outdoors, will involve 96 men and 96 women, and will run for at least 10 days. Influenced by golf, only 64 players will be issued tour cards each year.

The second tier, tentatively called the Contender Tour, will host events that currently have ATP and WTA 500 status. There is promotion and relegation each season, plus a playoff at the end of the year, and an eight-week vacation at the end of the year. The future of doubles is still being worked out and, crucially, no funding has been raised to match the proposal that would allow top players to earn more while playing less.

There aren’t many bone-in parts now, but the plan has evolved in one important way in recent weeks. It has become clear that the suggestion that premium tour players be prevented from competing elsewhere is not enough for the Grand Slams, especially for players expected to lose in the early rounds, at the 14th and 15th tournaments of the season. It collapsed due to this.

If these plans are adopted, premium tour players would be able to compete in perhaps four tournaments a year on the Contender Tour.

Planning a contender tour that is both economically sustainable and appealing to audiences around the world remains a major challenge. And with the current ATP and WTA 250 events likely to be downgraded to Challenger Tour events, many tournament owners will be left with product they can no longer sell.

“The Premium Tour is not guaranteed to happen, I’m convinced of that,” said one tournament owner likely to be significantly affected by the proposal.

“The players won’t agree – because they need to play. The guy who’s 50th or 60th can’t maintain his ranking because he always loses in the first or second round. Their goals. is to earn the most jobs throughout the year.The Premium Tour will feature the top 20 players.

“Tennis is about proximity and diversity. Diversity means you can play anywhere. Proximity means you can meet players even in small cities. That’s the strength of tennis. Sada.”

As the WTA’s Simon told the BBC earlier this month, if a new unified tour were to emerge, compromises would have to be made and would likely take years.

“We don’t have a blank slate. We’re going to spend all our time in court instead of getting something done.

“Of course, there may be principles you want to achieve, but that will take time. 1,000, 500, 250 events are big investments, they are important, and they all play their role in the ecosystem. You can’t just blow them up because there are.”

Gaudenge, his ATP counterpart, highlighted the goal of a “new unified governance for sport” in the One Vision strategy, which will be launched in 2022.

And the tour coordination is definitely progressing. The ATP and WTA are expected to continue very positive discussions this week about establishing a joint commercial entity to manage assets such as broadcasting rights, data and sponsorship, as well as a joint conference.

WTA Ventures was formed in March 2022 to manage WTA’s commercial interests and partnership with private equity firm CVC Capital Partners.

Tennis Ventures is the next step and will combine the commercial assets of the ATP and WTA under one roof.

Tennis is moving toward a new future, but no one knows its final destination yet.