Record 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal has said it’s time for the governing bodies of tennis and players to unite and work on helping the game get to an even better level. The ATP Tour wants to improve the game and they are hoping to accomplish that with the OneVision project.
The phase one of OneVision is set to kick off on January 2023 as the ATP wants to improve the prize money, financial transparency, and in general create a better environment for tournaments and players. Under the OneVision, tournaments and players would split the profit 50-50.
“I think it is a win-win formula,” Nadal said, per the ATP website.
Nadal agrees with ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi
“Let’s work together to improve our sport, instead of fighting with each other all the time,” Gaudenzi said during his conversation with Nadal.
“Because the competition is soccer, football, American football, golf, not competing against each other”. Gaudenzi has called for the governing bodies of tennis and its players to unite. “Oh, I agree with that,” Nadal said.
“I think we lose a lot of energy fighting between each other; tournaments are fighting for themselves and players are fighting for ourselves”. The ATP is planning to improve the baze prize money at the Masters events.
Also, Madrid, Rome and Shanghai will join Indian Wells and Miami as 12-day events from 2023. Meanwhile, Canada and Cincinnati plan to become 12-day Masters events from 2025. When asked about the importance of Masters events, Nadal described it as the closest thing to Grand Slams.
Nadal responded: “The Masters 1000s are huge events. Sometimes from my personal perspective it is Grand Slams and the rest of the tournaments much lower, so I think our goal from being the ATP is to put our tournaments closer and closer to the Slams in terms of promotion and importance. We need to encourage the tournaments to keep growing”.
