Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) chief Ahmad
Nassar believes that the idea of having a super tour in tennis will be a ‘generational
opportunity’.
There have been rumours that tennis federations are looking
to introduce a super tour, similar to how it is in football, which will include
mega events such as Wimbledon.
Nassar, while talking to Express Sports, backed the idea and
called it a ‘generational opportunity’ for players to become a part of such an
event.
“It is certainly
something we are keenly interested in doing some more work around to see what’s
possible. The details will absolutely matter,” he said. “I think the good news
is the broader point that we have made for as long as we have existed is that
the status quo is unacceptable.
“The way tennis is fragmented, the way the revenues aren’t
maximised, the way the schedule is a mess. All of these things are just not
acceptable and not becoming of a global sport and not becoming of professional
athletes who are the best in the world at what they do.
“I think this is a unique, frankly generational opportunity,
whether it’s what was reported [the super tour with Slams and Masters] or any
of these other options, to fundamentally reform the top end of tennis. Similar
to the creation of the EPL.
“And then that can elevate the entire sport because you’re
going to care. You still need a pipeline, how do younger players progress? How
do injured players or players who, for whatever reason aren’t playing the way
they were playing before, how do they round back into form?
“And so obviously very early but discussions around almost
like a version of promotion and relegation. There’s lots of different ways to
make it interesting and not leave people behind.
You’re still going to have lots of different tournaments,
250s, 500s, 125s, Universal Tennis events, that I think can feed into a system.
The problem right now is it’s so fragmented. And that results in odd
scheduling.”