"Not only do we have a great women's product, but also our audience is fairly split among women and men. A combined event, I strongly believe, is a better event both on site and media.
"It is just great. The variety is great. Our fans, they love both. We have strong combined tournaments within the ATP and the WTA and the Grand Slams are combined.""It is really a no-brainer and actually, we are lucky to be at the forefront in that regard," he said. "Other sports should be looking at what we have done so far. It is really important and it is a huge opportunity because it becomes very appealing content for the broadcasters."Former women's world No.1 Billie Jean King has long led the call for the ATP and WTA to unite, while former WTA chiefs Stacey Allaster and Anne Worcester have also suggested the tours would be stronger together.
The governance of tennis has been an issue for many years, with the fact that there are seven governing bodies often held up as one of the reasons tennis is not even more successful than it is. The ITF sets the rules of tennis and organises the four Grand Slam events - Wimbledon, US Open, French Open and Australian Open, while the WTA runs the women's tour and the ATP runs the men's."It's too confusing for the fans when there are different ranking systems, different logos, different websites, different tournament categories," he said.