Tennis Australia Held Constructive Meetings With ATP Officials

Written by: Staff on 9th October 2012

Tennis Australia Held Constructive Meetings With ATP Officials

epa03080908 Andy Murray of Great Britain returns to Novak Djokovic of Serbia during their men's single semi-final match at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 27 January 2012. EPA/AHMAD YUSNI |

The majority of the major constituents of men’s tennis broke up from a specially convened summit meeting in Shanghai with the future of initially next year’s Australia Open, and going forward long-term the four Grand Slam events, looking far more secure.

Tennis Australia ’s chief executive Steve Wood and Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley had lengthy meetings with Roger Federer and other members of the ATP’s

World Tour Players’ Council as well as the men’s tour’s executive president and chairman Brad Drewett, chief legal officer Mark Young and other members of the board as well as their Grand Slam opposite numbers in three days of meetings.

The meetings were arranged by ATP board member Charles Humphrey Smith, Managing Director/International of Juss Event, China’s largest sports/events management company which stages the Shanghai Rolex Masters 1000 with Wimbledon represented by All England Club chairman Philip Brook, chief executive Richard Lewis and former world no.4 Tim Henman while the U.S. Open delegation was led by U.S.T.A Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, Gordon Smith with tournament director David Brewer and his predecessor Jim Curley. Flying the colors of Roland Garros and the French Federation de Tennis was Gilbert Ysern who also doubles as French Open tournament director.

World no.2 Novak Djokovic and third ranked Andy Murray were also involved in talks that centered on the level of prize money at the four majors and the level distribution amongst the different rounds, and were told the Australian Open prize fund, already raised by a significant 18% for next year’s event after serious threats of a players’ boycott, is expected to swell to $US41 ($Aus40m) million by 2016.

“The entire three days were very positive and men’s tennis would appear to be the most united that I’ve seen it in 20 years,” said Australian Open tournament director Tiley who confirmed to the meeting Tennis Australia’s intention to particularly reward those ranked 50 and below who in the past have struggled financially once travelling and coaching expenses are subtracted from what they actually earn by losing early in the events.

Tiley said: “As a sport, that’s not good enough, and we’re all responsible for that – the grand slams, the tours, the International Tennis Federation.

“’We’re satisfied we’ve had our conversation and the feedback we’ve got from the Player Council and the playing group is that they’re very happy with our position, our approach, and most importantly our attitude towards this uplift. And we’ve made it clear that this is not something that’s new for us. In the last five years we’ve been pretty aggressive with compensation.”

Though Federer wasn’t quite so ecstatic about the results of the discussions, he did admit: “It’s nice to see the grand slams talking to us, feel sort-of partners out there.”

However Federer continued: “Nothing is clear from this end. It was good to see the Australian Open making their move, showing that they truly care about us, the players. Now we’ll see where it takes us from here.”

But ATP chief Drewett is extremely optimistic and said: “ I really do think we are now getting somewhere and to me the signs look very good. As an Australian, the last thing I wanted was to see the Grand Slam tournament that used to mean the most to me as a player from that country seriously threatened.

“I have been in constant discussion with Steve Wood and Craig Tiley for a number of months and from my viewpoint the aim has always been to find a healthy situation that suits both our players and the tournament.”

Tiley illustrated a major part of the discussions when he said: “One of the things we mentioned to the council is that if you’re a player ranked around 40 in the world for 10 years, and you retire at 31, at some point you’re going to have to go and start a second career.

“Now for someone who’s been for ten years the 40th best player in the profession, that should be their career, and even though they’re not playing they should be able to leverage and live off the success they had during that period.’”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Andy Murray, Atp, Australian Open, Brad Drewett, Craig Tiley, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Sports, Tennis Australian, Tennis News