General Tennis Discussion Thread

[Big Jean Studd]

wow

 

[Looji Nagata]

The Saudi Public Investment Fund announces a $2 billion offer to buy both the professional tennis tours, ATP Tour and WTA Tour.

Saudi Arabia has made its move for tennis, Telegraph Sport can reveal, with a $2 billion take-it-or-leave-it offer to merge the men’s and women’s tours.

Sources say that after the Premium Tour discussions in Indian Wells last Saturday, ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi asked the Masters tournaments to stay behind once the four grand slams had left the room. Gaudenzi then briefed them on an offer from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). The deal is said to be time-sensitive, with a 90-day expiration period if it is not accepted. As things stand, the four grand slams would not be part of this PIF offer.

The biggest upside for PIF would be a Masters 1000 tournament in the first week of the season – which was what the Saudis have wanted all along – and is something Gaudenzi has been pushing for since last summer. However, this idea was strongly opposed by Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley, who has established the United Cup team event in the same slot in the calendar. The resulting animosity between Tiley and Gaudenzi started the slams down the road to their so-called Premium Tour model last year.

It now seems all the more significant that Gaudenzi did not attend January’s Australian Open along with all the other tennis stakeholders, but instead travelled to Riyadh to negotiate with PIF. A small sponsorship deal was announced last month, putting PIF branding on the ATP rankings, but that was clearly only a starting point.

This development has the potential to cause further tension between the two tours and the four slams, especially as United States Tennis Association chief revenue officer Lew Sherr insisted the ATP and WTA chairmen should be invited to Saturday’s Premium Tour meetings as a point of courtesy.

Now it emerges that Gaudenzi had his own unifying model up his sleeve, in which he would ascend to become a tennis commissioner for the two tours.

The ATP had already put their annual tournament meetings back from Miami next week to Madrid in early May, which is where the decision on the PIF offer is likely to be taken.

Saudi Arabia launch tennis takeover with $2bn take-it-or-leave-it offer

Exclusive: Saudi offer to merge men’s and women’s tours is apparently time-sensitive, with a 90-day expiration period if it is not accepted

www.telegraph.co.uk

Slowly but surely taking over the sports world. One part at a time.

 

[Deadd2009]

Source: Djokovic to have surgery on knee injury

Novak Djokovic will have surgery on his torn meniscus, a source told ESPN, which will put his status for Wimbledon in doubt.

www.espn.com

 

[Kairi HoHo]

Did anyone see the Wimbledon Matchups today? I watched Fritz beating the higher Ranked Zverev and a hell of a bout between them. I thought for sure Fritz was doneso when he was down 2 Sets and Fritz just made me a fan of his showing his grit and will to win and achieve of himself beating a Top 10 Tennis player for the first time. I'm really hoping he gets through Lorenzo Musetti

 

[Kairi HoHo]

Did anyone see the Wimbledon Matchups today? I watched Fritz beating the higher Ranked Zverev and a hell of a bout between them. I thought for sure Fritz was doneso when he was down 2 Sets and Fritz just made me a fan of his showing his grit and will to win and achieve of himself beating a Top 10 Tennis player for the first time. I'm really hoping he gets through Lorenzo Musetti

 

[Deadd2009]

Krejcikova outlasts Paolini to win Wimbledon title

Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic beat Jasmine Paolini to win the Wimbledon women's title on Saturday, resisting a spirited comeback by the Italian to win 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 on Centre Court.

www.espn.com

 

[Chris]

Nadal to retire from tennis at end of 2024 season

Tennis great Rafael Nadal has announced he will retire from tennis after representing Spain at the Davis Cup in Malaga next month.

www.espn.com

Tennis great Rafael Nadal will retire from the sport at the end of the year.

Nadal, 38, has enjoyed a career that has seen him win 22 Grand Slams, including 14 French Open titles. But he has been hampered by injuries in recent years, and he announced Thursday that this will be his final year playing the sport.

 

[Big Jean Studd]

fucking legend. wish he stopped picking his crotch so much but ya, legend, king of clay forever. probably will never be a guy as consistent on that surface

 

[Big Jean Studd]

Not a big tennis guy but I was a big fan of the Nadal Federer era

 

[Barry Poppins]

Agassi, Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic belong on the Mt. Rushmore of Men's Tennis players.

 

[Necro]

 

[Necro]

 

[camdudetenger9]

whats big 4 is after australian open

french open or wimbleton aka the england open

 

[Necro]

French then Wimbledon

 

[camdudetenger9]

French then Wimbledon

oh ok