2023-06-27 20:10:37
Jean-Baptiste Sarrazin, with AFP / Photo credit: Nicolas Economou / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP 10:10 p.m., June 27, 2023, modified at 10:18 p.m., June 27, 2023
Towards a merger of the WTA and the ATP? The world body of women’s tennis has announced its desire to modify its calendar to integrate events with the body which governs men’s tennis. “A completely illusory idea” for the consultants of the program “Europe 1 Sport”.
The WTA on Tuesday announced plans to reshape its schedule to include shared events with the ATP, which will eventually lead to prize pool parity between women and men within the next ten years. “It’s a completely illusory idea. You have to remember the context: it’s a sport that is run by multiple organizations (the ITF, the ATP, the WTA), especially since the WTA and the ATP have taken different paths,” recalled Christophe Thoreau on the show. Europe 1 Sport (live every evening from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Europe 1).
Equal allocations by 2027
The plan calls for top female players to regularly compete in premier competitions at the WTA 1000 and WTA 500 level, which would then be combined with men’s events at the same level. These competitions would have equal prize pools by 2027 while non-combined week-long events will achieve parity by 2033. “They’re not making the right decisions, I totally disagree with that. Federer had during the Covid that it was necessary to regroup but it remained a dead letter because in any case it is impossible to do, “then added Benoît Maylin, sharply criticizing this merger project.
The WTA intends to increase the number of 1000 level tournaments to ten, several of which will extend over two weeks with a larger field, as is already the case in Miami and Indian Wells. With this in mind, Rome has taken the plunge this year, Madrid and Beijing will do so in 2024, Cincinnati and Montreal in 2025 to reach the same price level in 2027.
Other WTA 1000 events would be week-long tournaments in Doha and Dubai in February and at a venue to be determined in October, with equal prize pools ten years from now. The number of 500-level events will increase to 17 with stops in Tokyo, Brisbane, Charleston, San Diego, Washington, Seoul, Berlin, Adelaide, Abu Dhabi, Eastbourne, Monterrey, Strasbourg, Zhengzhou and Stuttgart, as well as the United Cup and two events at unannounced locations.
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