Pavlyuchenkova: Roger Federer e Rafael Nadal in favor of merger will make it happen

Former World No. 13 and WTA Player Council member Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova says that the support of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal on the merger of the ATP & WTA Tours will help push the idea forward. The Russian also spoke about the player relief fund for lower ranked players.

Pavlyuchenkova says Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in favour of merger will help make it happen

In an interview to the Tennis Majors website, the 28 year old Russian says, “I am in favor of a change that is needed. There is no other sport where you play throughout the year and that is not very healthy for us. We also have to seriously analyze the distribution of cash prizes, since there are many inequalities. I knew the idea of ​​merging ATP and WTA since last October at a Players Council meeting. We will see how this develops, but initially there are a good number of players who are in favor of this, and players like  Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal in favor will help us to make this finally happen. Sooner or later we will succeed. "

Speaking about the financial aid to lower ranked players, the Russian says, “It is one of the topics that has been most talked about in recent weeks. It is a novel situation and at the same time necessary to defend our players. To analyze this we have observed the number of WTA tournaments that played, if they have suffered injuries, the topic of maternity, … We consider these things and many others. It must be very clear that all the players below the 500th place in the ranking are in negative numbers economically speaking throughout the year. In my case the situation is different, since I am in the top 30 and I have money raised from all these months."

The issue about a merger between the ATP & WTA Tours came to the forefront once again after 20 time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer tweeted about the same last month. After his tweet, several other players including Rafael Nadal, Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova also supported the same.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3cd6d4K