ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi speaks to The National's @ReemAbulleil about plans to expand in Saudi Arabia, as the kingdom looks to stage bigger events across professional tennis
"Having civil war doesn't help": ATP Chief Andrea Gaudenzi issues defiant response amid breakaway tour talks
Tennis NewsFriday, 08 December 2023 at 22:30
The recent
information about a possible parallel tennis tour to the ATP tournaments has
triggered a response from ATP Chief Andrea Gaudenzi due to the threat of the
most significant change in this sport in years.
The Saudi
Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) intends to continue making substantial
investments in sports, as it has done in football and golf. This time, tennis
is in their sights, and they are poised to invest a considerable amount of
money. There have been rumors for several weeks that the ATP could include a
tenth Masters 1000 event in Saudi Arabia in the weeks leading up to the
Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the year, serving as preparation.
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According
to recent reports, the Saudi investment could be substantial, and the four
Grand Slam events could potentially join forces with the Masters 1000 to create
a separate tour featuring the world's top tennis players. The current head of
the ATP Tour, Andrea Gaudenzi, has offered his response to the situation.
“I think
that generally there is a lot of noise in that regard,” he said when asked
about a breakaway tour.
“Ultimately,
whatever was written in that article, it’s definitely the concept of focusing
on a premium product, which will mean the Slams and the Masters and the premium
product, all together combined, is a very powerful proposition for the
consumers. That I agree with 100 per cent,” he said.
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“Obviously,
I don’t know, different people probably come up with different ideas on how to
get there. I’m 100 per cent pro unity and pro finding solutions through
conversations in a room. I strongly believe we can agree a lot more than we
actually believe, when you’re together,” Gaudenzi added.
“Because
ultimately we are aligned. We are all pushing for tennis to be stronger and
growing, vis-à-vis the other sports and vis-à-vis the other entertainment
properties. So we’re on the same side, we’re on the same team – that’s team
tennis. Having civil war doesn’t help.”
“We are
exploring a number of different opportunities. We want to work with Saudi. I
think we had very good relations the last couple of years and very interesting
discussions,” ATP chief claimed.
“They have
expressed the willingness and the desire to do more in sport and in tennis. I
think the biggest challenge on our side is the calendar. In all honesty, it’s
very tight, it’s very jammed,”
“But the
desire for us to actually be here and be in the region, because we value the
Middle East a lot, is there. I think we’re going to have to work it out
together in phases or we’re looking at all opportunities. We don’t have the
solutions at the moment, but we’re definitely going to keep discussing with all
the parties,” Gaudenzi concluded.
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