Barbara Schett on the merger of the WTA and ATP tours: "Nothing will be taken away from the men"
Roger Federer tweeted the tennis scene last week. The Swiss thought aloud about merging the WTA and ATP tours. Barbara Schett welcomes the idea and sees it as a great opportunity.
by Lukas Zahrer
last edit:
Apr 26, 2020, 12:49 pm
"Of course I would approve. I asked myself 20 years ago why there had to be three different organizations, ”Schett told tennisnet about Federer's suggestion.
In addition to ATP and WTA, there is a third player, the ITF, which holds international professional tournaments. “If you pull together, tennis would be much stronger. There is a bigger product that you can market. The move would also help the men, ”says Schett. It would be easier to find sponsors.
"Something will grow. That would be the next step. A rethink is required because there may not be any tournaments until next year, ”says Schett. “Then we could risk a fresh start and go public with a new product. I find that exciting, I like to support the idea. "
Barbara Schett: "Had to fight for equality"
During her active career, there had never been a serious discussion about uniting the women's association with that of the men. Schett himself only played at the four major tournaments, as well as in Miami and Indian Wells, parallel to a men's event.
“We fought more to get the same prize money at Grand Slams. We women first had to fight for equality, ”says the 44-year-old. Today there would be significantly more combined events. "Something has changed."
A unification of tours of both sexes would increasingly lead to joint tournaments, the Tyrolean born believes. For this, the infrastructure at individual locations had to be enlarged. "I have often seen that men were only annoyed when players took away their training space," said Schett.
And further: “I am excited to see who will survive this crisis. Some smaller tournaments will not survive financially. It will also hit some players. ”An aid fund should at least help the poorly ranked players and be a financial support during the game-free period.
In the future there would be a greater chance of organizing high-end tournaments for women too. These are in fact different than on the ATP tour at the WTA. “Many people criticize that women get the same prize money at Grand Slams. Most would not be able to afford the sport. A number 40 in the world could not survive without Grand Slams, ”says Schett, and notes:“ Nothing is taken away from men, however. ”
Roger Federer gets the ball rolling
The stumbling block came from Federer, who started an open discussion, especially on Twitter, about a possible merger of the tours. “There has to be a crisis like this before you think about it. And the idea has to come from Roger Federer. If a woman had suggested it, the critical voices would certainly be louder, ”said Schett.
For Federer, the move may not be stubborn. With his Team8 agency, he organizes the Laver Cup, which is held independently of ATP, WTA and ITF. Should ATP and WTA do something together, there might be more room for another player on the world tennis market.
"It is very confusing for many viewers," says Schett with a look at the different formats in the tennis calendar. “There are points in the ATP Cup, but not in the Laver Cup. But both are team events. It needs clear lines. In the future there will be more events that have nothing to do with ATP or WTA. At the Laver Cup, we can see that it works. ”
Schett strongly hope that there will be a joint tour for women and men. “The new ATP CEO Andrea Gaudenzi is very motivated to change things. From a WTA perspective, it would be almost stupid if the opportunity were not taken. Now is the time to sit down and talk about it, ”says Schett.
Barbara Haas, Austria's currently best tennis player, did not want to comment on the subject on tennisnet request. Sandra Reichel, tournament director of Upper Austria Ladies Linz, the largest women's tournament in Austria, has not been available in the past few days.