The four Grand Slams, the two tours and Saudi Arabia are all hoping to revamp tennis

On this, the leaders of tennis can agree: There is more money out there to be made. Well, that’s open to discussion — and there is plenty of that happening now behind closed doors, conversations and negotiations about the future of tennis among the folks who run the Grand Slam tournaments and other events, the women’s WTA and men’s ATP professional tours, the players, their agents and others with a hand in the sport, including Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Fund. There are two main proposals, both aimed at increasing revenue, seeking support at the moment: One, driven by the four Slams, would get rid of the current WTA-ATP structure and create a new Premier Tour for roughly 100 women and 100 men and a lower-level Contenders Tour with 75 to 100 tournaments open to roughly 200 women and 200 men, with all events hosting both genders with equal prize money; the other, driven by the ATP, would form a venture with the WTA to sell media rights and sponsorships but keep two separate tours for playing purposes, while bringing in an infusion of cash from the PIF in part by placing a Masters 1000 event in Saudi Arabia. And that, he explained to The Associated Press this week in a joint interview with Sally Bolton — CEO of the All England Club, which runs Wimbledon — is why the four most prestigious and most-watched tennis tournaments, a quartet that includes the Australian Open and French Open, are working together in what Sherr called an “unprecedented way” in an effort “to unlock what we think is an enormous potential.” Making tennis more fan-friendly — an easier-to-understand and shorter season, for example, and more consistency in TV broadcasts from week to week — could bring roughly a $1 billion increase in annual value, on top of the sport’s current revenues of about $2.5 billion, Bolton estimated, by way of rights packages and increased sponsorship deals that could arise from more viewership. “The good news is we’re sitting on the cusp of what could be generational change for the better for a global sport,” Ahmad Nassar, the executive director of the Professional Tennis Players Association, a group co-founded by 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic to represent the sport’s athletes, said when asked for a general assessment of the state of play for tennis.