Over the years, the ATP and WTA Tour organizations have been closely aligned, yet still distinctly separate. Would the interests of players, fans, and sponsors be better served if the Tours merged into one organization?
Tell us your opinion in this week’s edition of Open Forum Friday!
Do you think that the men and women should band together to form one new Tour? Would this better the promotion and popularity of the sport? What drawbacks or benefits might happen if tennis had one ruling body for both genders?
Let us know your opinion by leaving a comment below.
Thank you, everyone, and have a great weekend!
Variety is spice. Allows for different strengths and weaknesses of the players to be better addressed in one than the other. Monopolies have strengths but yet separate organizations are helpful, though frustrating at times…
It seems having one ruling body might even out some of the dividing issues yet, I do not think it would benefit women in the long run.
No.
I can see no benefit in e merger of WTA and ATP.
There is a perception that women’s tennis is an inferior product. I think to amalgamate could undermine the visbility of women’s tennis, and diminish the prospect of female tennis players being taken seriously as athletes. Regrettably there will always be the sexualised and glamourised branding attached to women’s tennis – amalgamation, or not. But maintaining the two separate officiating bodies ensures a distinct identity and brand, rather the one becoming subordinate to the other.
A merger of the two bodies does not mean a merger in everyday decisions of tournaments. A merger could mean different things so it is difficult to say what would happen. I think that a merger could be helpful in Dubai where a one tour situation could have helped better than two tours operating separately.
Although there is more of a tendency for joint tournaments, I think that each gender needs their own, even if there if a merger, since women do get overshadowed by the men at the GS, and other joint tournaments. ( Let’s see the women’s final on the last day of a GS). I would hope that maybe women would get the idea of athleticism instead of the WTA pushing glamour and sexualized branding as Alice said above. It is not that the men never do this (they do have their yearly calendar) but it so much less obvious- the main thing for both should be athleticism. I don’t know if the men would want to merge if there is equal money at GS where women only play 3 sets. I agree. A woman gets 1000 more points more for a GS. For what? They have to play a set of two (?) more than at IW or Miami but they get days in between. The 5 sets that men play takes it up a notch and earns those 1000 more points.
In the end, I think a merger could play a force on subjects such as Dubai or just putting tennis “out there”. But I believe there might be too many issues between the women and men players to bring them together. The fact that women and men refer to the women as “girls” says a lot.
When I was in college I played on the men’s tennis team because we did not have a women’s tennis team. I played #3 singles. Was I as good as all the guys, no, of course not. Women are not supposed to be compared to men. I won 50% of my matches. I was thrilled. That was in 1967. Now in 2009 it is no different. I personally think it might be a good idea if the ATP and the WTA banded together to form one tour. Both sexes are athletic. That is what it is all about. It doesn’t matter how many sets you play. As long as the women and men keep their distinct identity. It should be one tour with separate bodies making decisions for each group.