Kazakh Tennis Federation VP believes ATP & WTA merger needs to face reality: "They do not generate the same income"

Kazakh Tennis Federation VP Yuri Polsky believes that an ATP and WTA merger is not a realistic solution, largely because both do not earn similar amounts of money.

There has been a discussion going around for a long time about the merger of the men’s and women’s tennis federations but that has not been materialised as of yet.

The basic argument regarding the discussion about a possible merger is the success of Grand Slams where both women’s and men’s tennis is played at the same time.

Polsky was recently quoted in a report where he stated that a merger is not a realistic solution, considering that men’s tennis generates far more revenue compared to women’s tennis.

“We must understand that the Billie Jean King Cup and the WTA , having equal prize money, do not generate the same income,” he said, “That is, unfortunately, this is a reality - people go to men’s tennis more.

“As a solution, ATP proposes a rights pooling option: broadcasting rights will be sold in the “ATP+WTA” complex. Broadcasters will buy the block: they cannot buy ATP separately. So they will also buy WTA.

“In this way, the value of the women's tennis association can be raised - artificially pumping it up a little. But in general, attention is being drawn - at least women's tennis will be broadcast.”