The Women's Tennis Association Championships begin in Istanbul today, a showcase for the world's top eight women.
But if things go to plan, the women could be playing alongside the men in a new super-combined event to end the season.
Stacey Allaster, the WTA chief, revealed yesterday that talks had been held with the ATP, which runs the men’s tour, with a view to staging a combined championship.
For any such event to be possible, the two tours would have to align their calendars. At the moment, the women’s event is held a month before the men’s showpiece at London’s O2 Arena.
However, with Andy Murray leading calls for the men’s calendar to be further cut sooner rather than later, a combined event may not be that far away.
“Combined events are very successful for our sport,” Allaster said. “There’s no doubt that fans enjoy seeing men and women compete on the same stage. We’ve talked about combing the two year-end championships. There’s no easy solution, but wherever it makes sense to co-operate, we’re looking for those opportunities.”
Allaster, who yesterday extended her contract as chairman and CEO of the women’s tour, wants to combine the WTA Tour broadcast rights with those of the ATP Tour, starting in 2017.
Aligning the calendar of the men’s tour with their own would help that goal and if they manage that, then a combined event, with the O2 Arena seemingly the most probable venue, could become a reality.
“When we redesigned our circuit structure [in 2008], of course we talked about a combined championships,” Allaster said. “The guys are focused on their calendar. We were able to make the changes to ours. If we could have them aligned, absolutely it’s something that we would be open to exploring.”
Murray and Rafael Nadal have been at the forefront of calls to reduce the men’s calendar beyond the two weeks that will come off it from 2012. At the US Open, Murray said: “The women actually do a good job with their calendar” and yesterday Allaster said making the right changes was “not a quick fix”.
“We spent more than five years working with the members and the players to redesign the circuit structure so that we could deliver to fans and sponsors,” she said. “So it’s not a quick fix. It does take a significant amount of time.
“Our approach was open, consensus-building, and fair. It was not easy saying to some tournaments who had been on the calendar for 30 years and had built women’s tennis: ‘We need you to change your date, we need you to change your status.’ That took time. There was a business transaction that needed to happen, as well.”
The WTA Championships kick off with three round-robin matches. In the Red Group, Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova will start proceedings against Vera Zvonareva, of Russia, followed by world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki against Agnieszka Radwanska, of Poland.
World No.2 Maria Sharapova will then round off proceedings on day one when she plays Australian Open champion Samantha Stosur.
The top two in each group will go through to the semi-finals.
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