Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal want to tour men and women together
The tennis tour is currently on hold - but work is going on behind the scenes. Also on a joint tour for women and men? Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are in favor of this.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Apr 22, 2020, 05:29 pm
The corona pandemic is currently demanding solidarity - there was only partial evidence of this in world tennis. As with the French Open , which rushed ahead without consultation with the world association, the other Grand Slam tournaments or even ATP and WTA and announced that they would relocate late in the summer.
More and more players in tennis recently advocated seeing the crisis as an opportunity to clean up the tournament calendar. Or even to bring the men's and women's tour under one roof?
Roger Federer advocates this. The Swiss tweeted on Wednesday afternoon: "I wonder if I'm the only one who is thinking that it's time for men's and women's tennis to join forces?" And further: "I'm not talking about standing on the pitch together. Instead, I am uniting the two player unions ATP and WTA, which host men's and women's tennis." After all, everything was confusing for fans: "different logos, world ranking systems, websites, tournament categories ..." All of this may have been done a long time ago, but now it may be really time. "It's hard times in all sports. We can come out with two weakened associations - or one strengthened."
Joint tour: Nadal and King agree with Federer
Rafael Nadal also agreed with Federer. "As you know from our discussions, I fully agree with you. It would be strong to get out of this crisis with a union of men's and women's tennis in one organization." Billie Jean King, one of the decisive players in the 1970s when founding the WTA, also said: "That has long been my vision. The WTA in itself was always just Plan B. I am glad that we are on one side make it happen to us. "
Especially in the past few years it has become increasingly clear that tennis with its various organizations is fighting each other - as with the two team events for the Davis Cup (ITF) and the new ATP Cup.
Is there already work on a tour behind the scenes? Some people doubt that Federer simply asks such a question via Twitter, without that something is already going on ...