In a thinly veiled warning that could portend an increasingly bitter battle between two of tennis’ most powerful entities, the owners of the Australian Open have informed the men’s tour executives that they will consider any attempt to schedule a tournament in Saudi Arabia during this period. the first week of the season as a request for a potential “breach” of an existing contract between the two organizations.
Tennis Australia sent the message last week, in a letter informing the ATP Tour that it had decided not to apply to host the proposed event. However, the Australians also used the letter, a copy of which Athleticism examined, to underline their fierce opposition to the ATP circuit projects. They sought to make clear that the tour should seriously consider the consequences of its efforts to disrupt a professional tennis calendar that now starts entirely in Australia and New Zealand, headlined by the United Cup, an international event by mixed teams which started last season. and attracts some of the best players in the world.
“Tennis Australia has an existing agreement with the ATP and WTA for the Week 1 United Cup, which is active until 2029 with options to extend,” wrote Jayne Hrdlicka and Craig Tiley, president and CEO of Tennis Australia. letter dated April 24. “The players enjoy the event, as does Tennis Australia. »
“We do not enter into agreements lightly, nor do we take lightly being asked to break an existing agreement. »
The letter is the latest salvo in a 10-month battle that began as a fight for the start of the season but has evolved into a duel for control of the sport between the Grand Slam tournaments and the ATP and WTA circuits. .
The favor of the Grand Slam an elite tennis tour made simple with 14 events, including the Grand Slams, which maintain a calendar that culminates four times a year with their tournaments, both geographically and in terms of court surfaces. The existing ATP and WTA tours attempt to maintain something like the status quo, only more, with one more big tournament and a little more money, thanks to a significant investment from Saudi Arabiawho is in the running to become the host of this tournament.
The battle has dominated conversations off the field and transformed what had been, for years, largely polite exchanges between the eight entities that oversee the professional game into a fierce, existential struggle for control of the sport and billions of dollars it produces.
It’s playing out at a crucial time for the game as it transitions from two decades of growth thanks, in large part, to stars such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams, who have retired or are on the way. .
As their careers wind down in the coming years, the sport’s leaders know they must market a new generation of stars and make it easier for fans to understand the hundreds of tournaments that take place each year while still meeting demands players for a schedule that does not overload their bodies and allows them to share the riches of the sport as elite athletes in other fields do.
At the moment, the battle for the start of the season is the main battleground.
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In the letter to ATP, Tiley and Hrdlicka, who announced in February that she would step down as chief executive of Virgin Australia Airlines, argued that maintaining the schedule was in the best interests of health and safety. financial well-being of players and the sport. . There is also the question of the enormous financial windfall and the media interest that it brings to its organization as its flagship event approaches.
“We have worked hard to make Australian January one of the most lucrative months of the year for gamers,” Tiley and Hrdlicka wrote. They argued that lead-up events for the Australian Open, including the United Cup, allow players to be in peak shape for one of the four biggest events of the year, while most of them adapt to the southern hemisphere and a radically different time zone. .
“The Australian Open can’t be moved,” they wrote, “so hosting an event in a different geographic region – with an eight-hour time difference, different weather conditions and a 15-hour flight – is clearly detrimental to preparing players for a Grand Slam.
They added that the current format makes it easy for fans to digest the start of the year and suggested that starting in Saudi Arabia, with a tournament one level below a Grand Slam, would only add to the confusion of fans. fans. Under the proposal, players – and the tennis world – would travel to Saudi Arabia, then Australia, then return to the Middle East in February for existing tournaments in Doha and Dubai.
“As a sport, our goal should be to simplify the structure of the tour in the eyes of fans, significantly improve the fan narrative and better leverage Grand Slams to attract tour audiences. All of this is compromised by an event in Week 1, hurting our ability as a sport to better compensate players.
The ATP has said little about its plans regarding the details of the new tournament, which is expected to begin in 2027. The tender did not specify the exact schedule of the tournament but instead indicated that it would take place over a period of 60 days . window in January or February. The new tournament is an important part of its plans to bring what could amount to around $1 billion in new investment into tennis.
Saudi Arabia’s growing influence in sport
The leaders of the women’s tour, the WTA, have largely sided with the ATP in their efforts to thwart the Grand Slam’s efforts to create a slimmed-down premium tour, which would reduce the importance of the vast majority of the ATP. and WTA tournaments. However, a new men’s event in the first week that threatens the viability of the United Cup – which offers a combined prize pool of $10 million – would jeopardize one of the most lucrative events of the year for female players .
The WTA did not participate in the tender for a new tournament, in which Saudi Arabia expressed interest in organizing a men’s and women’s Masters 1000. The owners of major women’s tournaments would have to approve such a move, and the WTA does not see an open spot in its calendar. He doesn’t want to ask his players to play more than they already do.
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Three people involved in the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private discussions, said the wrangling over the first week of the season was a struggle to gain leverage in the broader battle over whether to create a premium tour.
The ATP, with the tacit agreement of the WTA, is not willing to give up the possibility of holding the new tournament in January until the Grand Slams promise not to devalue the tour events by creating a new premium circuit. Tennis Australia and the three other Grand Slam tournaments are unwilling to abandon promotion of the premium circuit without assurances that the ATP and WTA will not disrupt the current pace of the calendar.
There is an obvious compromise, people say: holding the new Masters 1000 in February, after the Australian Open. However, as tensions continue to rise, the environment is not conducive to finding common ground.
(Top photo: Colin Murty/AFP via Getty Images)