Interesting interview that you have offered Andrea Gaudenzi to the magazine Tennis Magazine, where he analyzes in detail what the growth needs are that the professional circuit is currently going through. The Italian, president of the ATP since October 2019, has a positive opinion about the changes in format and the media boost of the players, paths through which he hopes to make a leap at a global level and make tennis much more commercial. Here below we highlight the most striking headlines.
Meaning of ‘One Vision’
“We want to create an experience for the fans and take tennis to a new level. We compete against other platforms like Netflix, streaming music, and other sports. What is our problem? That we are fragmented. There is the ATP, the WTA, the four Grand Slam tournaments and the ITF, four bodies that function independently. This makes it difficult to market the product and tell fans a consistent story.”
Distance between the Grand Slams and the rest
“The evolution of Grand Slam tournaments in the last 30 years is fantastic, they are the pinnacle of our sport. This will continue to be the case, although Masters 1000 tournaments are a similar product. Look at Indian Wells, it’s a mixed event that lasts ten days and all the top 100 compete, it’s the same draws. However, the relationship between popularity and attention is significantly lower. Our intention is to strengthen the product, but we do not have the ambition to reach the same level. I like the idea that the four Slams are the most prestigious tournaments, but it should improve our cooperation with them.”
Changes in the Masters 1000
“What we most want to strengthen are the interests between players and tournaments. We want a new prize money formula so players can share in their financial success, so the ATP will be a 50-50 partnership between players and tournaments. For more than 30 years, tennis players have not had the opportunity to engage in this commercial aspect, which led to complaints and mistrust, which was understandable. As a player and partner of the ATP, one is interested in those processes.
become more media
“Not only do we need the players on the pitch, they also need to be available off the pitch. We need more content, interviews, documentaries for the media, so that the fans know their stories. It’s not just about who won the match, the protagonists have to be exposed. The motto of the ATP should be: let us unite instead of fighting each other for a small percentage of the prize money.
A Masters 1000 on grass?
“There are three weeks between Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Grass is the only surface that a Masters 1000 tournament is not played on, this means that between Rome and Canada we don’t have premium content for fans, so a Masters 1000 on grass would make sense, especially on such a wide market. like the German, the number 1 in tennis in the 90s. Germans love tennis and its history, just like in the UK, they have the same chance of having a Masters on grass. Our plan is for there to be ten Masters 1000s in the future.”
Documental and Netflix
“We want more people to be excited about tennis, so we want to show what’s behind every scene on the tour, a different side of the players, who they are and what they do, what it means to be a professional. We are in the entertainment business, we want to tell stories, live matches cannot be the only product we offer. Currently, 50% of media consumption is not live events. Did you see the documentary The Last Dance, by Michael Jordan? That made me want to watch the NBA more.”
Changes in the regulation
“I am a great believer in innovation, we have to adapt to new generations and technologies, to new consumer behavior. Of course you can improve the format, shorten it, but the good games will always continue to be the long ones, the ones that generate more emotion. First we have to study how to improve our content offline, then we will think about how to use that data in line with consumer behavior and thus optimize the live product. I also have my traditional part, I don’t want to change the game completely.
