Novak Djokovic shares his thoughts about ATP Finals venue
"Well, I'm not 100% sure on that, because the board decides. You know, I'm part of the player council, so we do discuss. But, then, you know, it's up to our board representatives under this system and structure to decide, you know, what they vote. In most of the cases, they follow what the majority of what the council feels like. But, you know, at times, on some big issues, we are divided, and so we let the board representatives take the lead. So as I understand, several cities are in contention for the World Tour Finals. London is still one of them. I think it's Tokyo and a couple of other cities, I think, Turin and Singapore. We'll see. It's not that simple to decide.
Tournament sites of ATP also have to feel comfortable with that. It is the biggest event that ATP owns. So the choice has to be well-thought, and, of course, it's going to affect, you know, ATP as a whole in many different levels. I think that last year, several months ago, actually, the last World Tour Finals, wasn't as good attendance-wise as most of the other years. So that was also an indicator that maybe people.. maybe it's time to change, maybe not. I don't know. We'll see at the end of this year how is it going to be. But it has been a super-successful event. London is one of the biggest, most popular cities in the world in general but also for tennis, the city that has Wimbledon.
And, because of Wimbledon, you have tradition and history and you have the culture of tennis. So people do nurture their culture of tennis, and that's why we have experienced some super-star events in O2 over the years. But, you know, I guess it comes down to whether we want to stay somewhere where it's very successful, which is a fair argument, obviously, or you want to take chances, in a way, and travel the tournament that is supposed to be.. if not, the greatest event for promotion of tennis, then definitely one of the greatest.
You know, I guess that's what it comes down to. Of course, there are various factors: economics, the city, culture of sport, various things. I think that's probably the most important question."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2NYbbrq
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