"Everyone makes decisions in their own interest" - ATP chairman speaks on the challenges of an ATP-WTA merger. seeks resolution by 2025

There has been recent talk of the ATP and WTA merging tours lately, and ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi added some flames to the fire after giving an update on the status of deliberations between both governing bodies.

Former World No.1 Roger Federer proposed the idea of both tours merging in 2020. The 20-time Grand Slam champion's idea was supported by fans and fellow tennis players at the time, but there was no action taken at the time.

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Gaudenzi open to working with other tennis governing bodies

In a recent interview with L'Equipe. the Italian touched on the topic of tennis governing bodies coming together for the good of the sport.

"Everyone must sit around the table, the ATP, the WTA, the Grand Slams, the ITF. For me, it is the only way to make tennis last," said Gaudenzi during the ATP Finals. "Currently, there are seven organizations that manage world tennis and that is too many. Everyone makes decisions in their own interest and tennis suffers from it. We are pushing in the direction of a great union."

To further his point, the ATP chairman revealed his hopes of having a unified ATP-WTA tour sometime in the future, possibly as soon as the 2025 season.

"This is a merger of all the commercial entities of the ATP and the WTA in order to manage, in particular, all the media rights, partnerships and data of the two circuits," he added. "The goal is to be operational by the end of 2025. It's not easy, but I'm optimistic."