ATP Exec Chair & President Chris Kermode on Wednesday "outlined the details of the organization's 10-year plan and dismissed this winter's inaugural International Tennis Premier League as nothing more than exhibition events," according to Courtney Nguyen of SI.com. Players have "complained for years that the ATP and WTA seasons are too lengthy and the tours have done their part to condense them." But now, they are "voluntarily flying to Asia to compete just weeks before the regular season starts in exchange for a paycheck." Kermode: "There have always been exhibitions. There always will continue to be exhibitions. I think what has caused this to be an issue is the word 'league.' This is just a series of glorified exhibitions. I actually don't have a problem with it. It's very light entertainment. It's no problem that players can go and play in it. They're not going to be playing at 100 percent." Nguyen notes the league is "comprised of four teams in Manila, Singapore, New Delhi, and Dubai," and a "slew of top names have signed on," including Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Eugenie Bouchard, Gael Monfils, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Pete Sampras, Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic. Andy Murray, who also will play in the league, said, "It will be interesting to see how it goes. You never know how first time events are going to go." With Kermode's "experience as a tournament head, it should come as no surprise that he wants to lock in the ATP calendar for the next four years to give events the lead-time for promotion." Kermode: "There are some calendar issues. The 2016 Olympics causes some real congestion in the summer. But we just have to confront those and produce the best calendar that we can." Meanwhile, Kermode said of tennis' growth in China, "I think we're just at the beginning. I think it's only going to get bigger and bigger" (SI.com, 10/8).
TAKING ON A NEW CHALLENGE: Nguyen noted ATP Int'l Group Exec VP Alison Lee has "spearheaded the ATP's continued growth in the Asia-Pacific region." Asked why she wanted to chair the ATP's Challenger Tour committee, Lee said, "When I look at this region I want to see more Asian players coming through. I want our tournaments to be stronger. One day I want to see more tournaments in this region, more sponsors coming out of this region. ... In Europe ... they have 30 of our 62 ATP World Tour tournament licenses. Out of our Challenger tour, which has 151 events worldwide, Asia has something like 22 percent." Asked about the most difficult part of managing the Challenger Tour, Lee said, "Challengers are only one-year sanctions, they're not licenses. They're not members of the ATP. Challenger operators don't necessarily want to be locked into anything. The Challenger tour in itself is so complex because it is so fragile. That's a double-edged sword. There's tremendous flexibility but you can lose tournaments. We lose between 10-20 percent a year and then new ones come on" (SI.com, 10/9).
FIRST SERVE: ESPNW's Michelle Smith wrote WTA Chair & CEO Stacey Allaster is "about to engage in something of a risky process -- attempting to fix something that she doesn't think is broken." Allaster said, "We are doing fantastically well. ... We are competitive, we want to win and we want to be even better." She added, "We want to be the most inspirational and exciting sports entertainment experience on earth. Notice, I didn't say that we want to be the No. 1 women's sport, or the No. 1 governing body. I didn't even say tennis in our mission statement." Smith noted Allaster's plan "embraces the philosophy of being open to significant culture change and listening to the fans, who are telling the WTA what they want: more engagement." Allaster: "Our fans have told us they want a greater connection to the players ... they want more events and they want easy ways to follow our season." In addition to increasing player access for fans, Allaster said that the tour "will focus heavily on its digital product." Meanwhile, Allaster wants to "increase the tour's prize money" to $200M by '20 (ESPNW.com, 10/9).
