The Tennis Ventures concept: what a unified ATP–WTA platform could mean
Earlier this year, ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi told Sports Business Journal that the ATP and WTA are exploring the creation of a shared commercial structure and are already in discussions about what such a model could look like.
The idea is to consolidate selected global media rights, data and statistics monetization, and top-tier sponsorship categories under a single commercial platform. In industry discussions, this concept has sometimes been referred to as Tennis Ventures, though no official name has been announced. This would not replace local and tournament-level commercial agreements, but would create a clearer and more efficient point of entry for global partners seeking broad presence across both Tours.
It is also important to note that the Grand Slams are not part of these discussions. The Australian Open, Roland-Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open are commercially and organizationally independent, governed by their respective national federations and managing their own media and sponsorship portfolios. Any unified platform between the ATP and WTA would therefore apply only to the tour-level ecosystem.
Likewise, this is not a merger in a sporting or operational sense: both Tours would continue to run their own calendars, rankings and internal governance. What is under discussion is the commercial layer — a shared point of entry for global partners, rather than a restructuring of how the sport is played or organized.
Today, tennis remains a fragmented market. A global brand looking to enter the sport often must negotiate with multiple rights owners — tours, tournaments, agencies, and intermediaries. This fragmentation reduces transparency and makes tennis less competitive against properties that present themselves as unified commercial entities, such as Formula 1, the NBA, or the Premier League.
The Tennis Ventures model is meant to address this by creating a coherent value proposition for brands seeking presence across both men’s and women’s tennis.
The approach, however, raises questions about balance. In recent years, women’s tennis has worked deliberately to shape its own marketing identity — emphasizing autonomy, well-being, and a renewed visual narrative of women’s sport.
For some brands, the WTA audience is not simply part of “global tennis” but an independent asset with its own voice and tone. A unified commercial platform could reduce this flexibility depending on how partnership tiers are structured, by packaging the two tours together by default, potentially narrowing the range of partnership expression and increasing competition for visibility within a shared pool.
Still, the potential upside of strengthening tennis’s negotiating power on the global rights market may outweigh these concerns. Larger and more consistent deals, clearer commercial storytelling, and a unified global positioning could create a more stable financial foundation for the sport — one in which economic stability has historically been unevenly distributed across events, regions, and player tiers.
Tennis Ventures remains a model under discussion rather than a finalized agreement. But the direction of travel is clear: tennis is looking for a way to operate commercially as one sport while preserving the diversity of identities within its ecosystem. If that balance is achieved, the entire sport stands to benefit. If not, tennis risks returning to its familiar dual structure — compelling, but commercially divided.
