Turin, Italian tennis, global tennis with a look to the future: the president of the ATP Andrea Gaudenzi, champion in the 90s (one who beat Sampras and Federer, reached the final in nine tournaments, winning three: his 18th place best placement in the standings), talks about it with The sun 24 hours. Among the eight players who will compete for the title of “Maestro” in the last competition of the year at the Palalpitour is Matteo Berrettini (he was also in the race in 2019) … Jannik Sinner did not make it by a whisker and it is reserve.
A magical moment for us. How can we capitalize on it?
Certainly with two players like Matteo and Jannik interest is catalyzed, fans but also youngsters approach a sport that today has about 400 thousand Fit members: a number destined to grow. The educational aspect is important, the ability to manage and discipline oneself, I also see it with my three children aged 14, 12 and 10 who play, train, and at the same time know that school is not touched.
Compared to “your” years, how is today’s tennis characterized?
Today the narration is simpler, it starts in January and ends in November with the finals. You can follow the best within an easy circuit, where all the players do not miss the most important appointments. In my day the difference between the surfaces was clearer, there were those who expressed themselves beautifully on some pitches and played poorly on others. Today this happens much less. For sure Nadal gives his best on clay, but he also won Wimbledon and the US Open, once Agassi could do it but he was the exception… Sampras has never come close to success at Roland Garros. Thanks to the reduction of the differences between the “slow” and the “fast”, and to the balls, there is much more uniformity.
Speaking of evolutions, do you think the time for a set of four, or the “killer point”, as in the Next Gen formula is near?
I am convinced of one thing: sport is in the entertainment sector, it is a content that we distribute. A particular content, there are several games at the same time, you don’t know when a match starts and when it ends. The times of use have changed (people watch less live and maybe catch up on a game in the evening), and also the methods, with digital. All of this tells us that if we have to change the product, it must be done on the basis of data. There are those who do not agree to see a 40-minute match, not very satisfying and for which they have taken an expensive ticket, and those who find the 3 out of 5 excessive because what they care about is quality: a bit like the cinema, where it doesn’t matter if the film is three hours long but if you like the story it tells. The Next Gen is an incubator. Of course, if a change is to be considered, the players have to agree. One thing is certain: we monetize little.
Meaning what?
We have a billion fans, tennis is the fourth most followed sport in the world (after football, basketball and cricket, before rugby and motorsport, ed) yet in the pie of 50 billion dollars of sports rights sold to the media, its share is equal to 1.3 per cent. That of golf (only 11th in popularity) reaches 2.5 percent.