From introducing aggressive tennis to budding children to laying out a clear-cut pathway in direction of the higher echelons of the sport, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) does a host of issues. ‘From Playground to Podium’ is in spite of everything certainly one of its flagship slogans.
In an interview to The Hindu on the sidelines of the ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour occasion at the Bowring Institute in Bengaluru, Andrew Moss, Strategy and Pathway Head, ITF World Tennis Tour, mentioned ITF’s sprawling governance mandate, gamers’ monetary constraints, event parity between women and men, enlargement plans and extra. Excerpts:
How is it being in India and what are your ideas on how the ITF World Tennis Tour is progressing right here?
We’ve been actually delighted in the final couple of years to have the ability to accomplice a lot with the AITA (All India Tennis Association). We’re aware of the incontrovertible fact that it’s a very pricey enterprise for skilled tennis gamers with the journey and lodging. What we need to do is present alternatives in their very own nations in order that price is much less and it’s extra about means and with the ability to climb the rankings. We’re delighted that in the final 12 months we’ve launched a new class of ladies’s occasions, a $40,000 event (W40), of which there are 4 in India this 12 months. And we wish to develop that subsequent 12 months.
You talked about about the significance of creating it simpler for gamers to handle prices. But aside from say the top-200, it’s powerful for others. Are there any efforts to make sure that extra folks can reside off the cash they make by taking part in tennis?
One of the issues that the ITF has invested itself in is prize cash on the girls’s World Tennis Tour. Last 12 months (2023), it was over $17 million, and that was a file. It was two million greater than in 2022, which was additionally a file. There are some smaller issues that you simply can do as effectively, like having tournaments in consecutive weeks, both in the similar nation or at small distances between nations. One of the issues we did at the begin of 2023, and we’re doing at the begin of 2024, is having the similar girls’s $40,000 tournaments in consecutive weeks in Thailand and India as a result of the visa journey is kind of straightforward. We are additionally going to survey gamers’ prices. If they’re taking part in of their nation, what sort of journey and lodging prices have they got? What occurs when they’re taking part in outdoors their nation? It ought to be capable of give us an thought of what it is going to take for extra girls, particularly, to have the ability to cowl their prices with prize cash. You spoke about top-200, however what wouldn’t it take to permit 400 girls to do the similar or 500? So it’s all about ensuring that extra girls can see skilled tennis as a official profession and we’re dedicated to creating certain that occurs. What we’re additionally making an attempt to do is present the similar degree for girls as the ATP’s Challenger occasions do for males. That’s in the variety of occasions. We received nearly to parity this 12 months, however there are variations in the variety of tournaments that present hospitality and in prize cash. Those are two gaps that we want to shut in the brief to medium time period.
You talked about event parity. For males, ATP handles the whole lot upwards of Challenger 50 (50 factors). But on the girls’s facet, it’s the ITF that handles till W100 and solely then does the WTA are available in. Does that drawback gamers?
It’s not the similar, however I don’t assume it’s a drawback. The most vital factor is the coverage and the dedication to executing that coverage. The variety of tournaments is now the similar between ATP Challengers and the girls’s equal, which is nice. Three or 4 years in the past, for each one ITF girls’s occasion at the $40,000 degree (W40) or larger, there’d be two ATP Challengers. But now it’s one to 1. So, as I discussed, it’s the coverage and the dedication to executing the coverage that’s the most vital factor.
The ITF’s mandate is to develop the sport and in addition look to construct a industrial enterprise with a sustainable revenue-expansion mannequin. How do you stability the two?
When we take a look at the success of the World Tennis Tour every year, we don’t simply take a look at the prize cash or variety of occasions at a sure degree, however we’re additionally what number of totally different nationalities of ranked gamers there are, what number of totally different nations are organising competitions. At the second, there are about 75 nations that host ITF World Tennis Tour occasions. There are about 140 nations that host ITF Juniors. So the most evident place to look for new internet hosting nations are the ones that host Junior occasions however not skilled ones. If you possibly can get to 100 nations organising, that may be nice. We’re at all times trying to help extra gamers get onto the pathway and be given alternatives in order that we can be agnostic about the place expertise comes and it can nonetheless succeed.
The tennis calendar stretches from January to November. Do you assume it’s too lengthy?
I feel we’ve to be a little bit agnostic to the time of 12 months. There are instances of the 12 months, for instance, right here in India in December the place you may get nice crowds and that basically helps the event work commercially. So it’s not fairly really easy to say, ‘we’re going to cease in December.’ One factor we should be aware of is about gamers who’re taking part in in the Grand Slam qualifying in Australia in January. They do want time to relaxation and recuperate. More broadly, we’ve been serious about having a little bit of construction to the starting and the finish of the 12 months. Like an end-of-the-year championships for the ITF World Tennis Tour. Something like that might bookend January to November. We’re conscious that the tour can run each single week. There are fewer occasions in December than there are at different instances of the 12 months, in order that sort of has its personal logic. But at the similar time, we’re additionally a international tour and December is just not essentially a down month in all places in the world. I feel we’ve a good stability at the second. Up till November, there’s a sturdy illustration of tournaments, and it tails off in December. But I perceive that a lot of gamers would love it a bit structured in order that they can have a correct low season earlier than Australian Open qualifying.
Carlos Alcaraz of Spain performs a forehand in opposition to Novak Djokovic of Serbia throughout the Men’s Singles semifinal match at the Nitto ATP Finals.
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Is the season-ending championship for ITF World Tennis Tour like the ATP Finals, WTA Finals and the ATP Next Gen Finals? Is it in the works?
It’s an thought and we have to focus on it with the Tours (ATP and WTA). It’s actually an thought as a result of I feel it offers a little little bit of construction. The ATP has the Finals, as does the WTA. So I feel one thing like that might help. It’s additionally a type of issues the place we might begin establishing a legacy of the ITF World Tennis Tour. For a participant like Carlos Alcaraz, who has been World No.1 and a Grand Slam champion, what have been the phases in his profession? It is not only that he gained a ATP Masters 1000 or that he gained Challenger titles. It can be that he gained a Men’s ITF $25,000 in Spain in 2019. Had there been a second for him the place he may need been capable of win an end-of-year championship for males, that might have been an attention-grabbing sort of staging level in his profession. And that’s certainly one of the issues that might help the profile of the ITF Tour. But it’s solely an thought for now.
Considering any such change entails discussions with a number of stakeholders and tennis governing our bodies like the ATP, the WTA, the 4 Grand Slams and Grand Slam board, how troublesome are these negotiations?
The factor that you simply can take as a optimistic is that change can occur by consensus. We have our participant panel, we’ve our committees, we’ve the ITF board, we’ve the ATP, the WTA, all essential stakeholders. But what which means is we get a constant and joined-up method. I see advantages in with the ability to take totally different opinions and totally different industrial pathway views and with the ability to observe them into one. So I don’t see a difficulty with that. From a fan perspective, typically it can be irritating to see totally different guidelines and totally different organisations. But the incontrovertible fact that it can contain totally different views, I feel it’s a good factor.
What are the plans for 2024? Any new improvement initiatives on the anvil?
Over the final three years, we’ve been capable of materially change the quantity and high quality of suggestions that we’ve received from gamers. In truth, we’ve Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha and Shivani Chilakalapudi from India in the gamers’ panel, and that’s been nice in enabling us get suggestions. Some of our aims [for the future] are associated to the matters that we’ve mentioned — prize cash, scheduling of tournaments, introduction of extra hospitality which can ease the profit-loss equation. We are additionally trying to work on requirements at every event, and making it higher. These simply stay basic, and we are going to proceed to work on them in 2024 and subsequent years.
