The head of the men’s professional tennis tour has warned that the sport’s continued failure to pool commercial businesses and reduce fragmentation between events is leading to billions of dollars in lost revenue.
Andrea Gaudenzi, chair of the Association of Tennis Professionals, told the FT that bringing together the men’s and women’s tours, the International Tennis Federation and the four Grand Slams — Roland-Garros, Wimbledon plus the Australian and US Opens — would transform the finances of tennis and unlock a huge potential fan base. He estimates that the current revenue generated across professional tennis of about $3.5bn a year could double or even treble if the entities were to combine forces.
“Tennis is under-monetised. There is a huge opportunity to grow the pie,” he says. The sport needs to create a “one-stop shop” for broadcasters, sponsors, betting companies, fans and players that can “move, change, adapt, innovate and be ready for the challenges that we will all face in the next 10 years”, he adds.
“We’re still too fragmented, too slow, there’s too much internal fighting, too much focus on what share of the pie we should all get rather than growing the pie overall.”
Gaudenzi, who has been ATP chair since 2020, has long been a vocal advocate of proposals to bring the two tours, the ITF and the four Grand Slams under a single umbrella that could strike global deals for TV rights and sponsorship.
