The creation of a joint commercial venture between the ATP and WTA Tours has been put on hold indefinitely as the women’s game faces the prospect of making significant cuts to its operational budget.
- Merger negotiations collapsed over proposed revenue share, with WTA chair Valerie Camillo rejecting terms linked to predecessor Steve Simon.
- WTA is cutting costs, sending fewer operational staff to events including Wimbledon, and moved finals from Riyadh to Indian Wells.
- ATP proposed halving doubles draws and cutting prize share from 20% to 10%, while the WTA says it will not cut doubles.
Negotiations over a merger, which would have seen the two tours pool their commercial and media rights, are understood to have broken down over the terms of the proposed revenue share, with the WTA effectively walking away from a deal that had appeared close to being finalised last year.
Sources with knowledge of the talks have told the Guardian that WTA chair, Valerie Camillo, is unhappy with terms accepted by her predecessor, Steve Simon, who stood down after a decade in charge at the end of last year.
ATP chief executive, Eno Pollo, said in January that the two tours were “quite close to reaching an agreement,” but such optimism has proved unfounded.
As the smaller tour, with annual revenue of $142m in 2024 compared to the ATP’s $294m, the WTA theoretically could have gained from pooling resources and sharing revenue in the longer term, but were not prepared to accept the terms on offer.
The WTA is understood to have already begun to implement cost-cutting measures, with fewer operational staff attending some events, including Wimbledon.
While there has been no impact on prize money to date there is understood to be some concern in the locker room that tournament purses could be cut or frozen in future years, after the WTA took the decision earlier this month to exit their three-year contract to take their finals series to Saudi Arabia one year early. Instead of being held in Riyadh, this year’s WTA finals will take place in Indian Wells, California.
Despite facing financial pressures, however, the WTA has no plans to follow their ATP in cutting their doubles programme.
Under a proposal discussed with the players last week, doubles draws at ATP 1000 events would be halved to 16 pairs, with only eight pairs competing at smaller tournaments, and their share of tournament prize money would be reduced from 20% to 10%.
The ATP and WTA declined to comment.
