© Getty Images Sport – Buda Mendes
Stan Wawrinka made his feelings perfectly clear on the Premium Tour idea with a simple one-word message as the three-time Grand Slam champion reacted with a “LOL (laugh out loud)” to a Premium Tour-related article.
Over the last couple of months, there has been much talk about the four Grand Slams joining forces with the Saudis and creating an elite tour that would feature 16 top tournaments per year. As currently proposed, the Premium Tour would consist of four Grand Slams – 10 Masters events – the season-ending tournament for men and women, as well as one team competition.
But in that scenario, the ATP and WTA tournaments from the 500 and 250 categories would pretty much be wiped away.
On Wednesday, Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim published an interview conducted with USTA CEO Lew Sherr, where they discussed the motives behind the Premium Tour and their goals.
In the interview, Sherr pretty much highlighted that tennis “dilutes its own product” and that having many tournaments has been detrimental to its product. Instead, having a tour that would see a limited number of tournaments with all top players competing in them at the same time would drastically improve the quality and instantly makes tennis easier to sell as a product.
But Wawrinka isn’t impressed.
lol
— Stanislas Wawrinka (@stanwawrinka) March 21, 2024
Wawrinka not a fan of the Premium Tour idea
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Sherr stated that “just too many tournaments are not viable.”
“So you’re the fourth most popular sport in the world, but 70% of those fans are only watching the four events during the year. And the feedback also indicated that events during the season lack consequence,” USTA CEO Sherr said.
“Fans have a hard time following the narrative. We dilute our own product. We compete with our own product. You might have six events in a given week. Fans struggle to know where they should be watching. Why is Sinner playing in Rotterdam and Alcaraz is somewhere in South America?
“The solution that came back from all of that fan research? The best way to present the sport to fans was in a format where the best players are playing in a prescribed sort of elite season. At the same time, you’re accounting for player health, rest, peaks in performance.”
This month, it was also reported that there is a possibility of creating the “PIF Tour” – one that would see the ATP and WTA merge and be directly tied to Saudi Arabia. It remains to be seen whether it will be the Premium Tour or the PIF Tour that will see the daylight.
