'One tour would be perfect and unite tennis' - Jurgen Melzer joins Tennis Legends
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Updated 29/06/2020 at 14:11 GMT
Jurgen Melzer, who joined the Tennis Legends vodcast along with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has thrown his support behind the push for a single tour in the sport.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Jurgen Melzer
Image credit: Eurosport
The Austrian, who is on the ATP Player Council, joined Tennis Legends presenter Mats Wilander and Eurosport expert Alex Corretja to discuss a wide range of issues - from Novak Djokovic's controversial Adria Tour to stories about how the players are represented past and present.
But the 39-year-old also spoke very passionately about talk of the ATP and WTA tours uniting - a concept pushed last month by Roger Federer and other top players - and said he believes it would be fantastic for the sport.
"I have been asked this a few times these last few weeks," Melzer said on the Tennis Legends vodcast.
I would say in a perfect world, of course you want to unite tennis and you want to have it under one big leadership, I think it would be perfect.
"If we have the chance of being a global association, all of a sudden we can fight against soccer and all the other big sports in the world. Because right now, what we have, we have the ITF on one side, then we have the ATP, we have the WTA.
"You know, you work for TV. If all the TV rights would be under one big umbrella, how much more power would you have? That is just one thing. At least, that’s my common sense. I don’t know if it’s like that in reality.
"They have to negotiate with so many different things, it would be much easier if they could be under one umbrella. But that’s the perfect world. DO we live in a perfect world? No!"
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Jurgen Melzer and Roger Federer
Image credit: Getty Images
Pavlyuchenkova also shared her views on the subject, and spoke about the need for unity in the game while urging top WTA players to make their voices heard.
"I feel like the guys, they’ve always been more united. I always hear or see in the news that Rafa, Roger or Djokovic have come up with some comments or they do something, like they comment about ATP.
But I never anything from our top players from the WTA. They’re always silent. I would love to see more. Not only to see a united ATP and WTA, but at least just within WTA I would like our top players like Serena, for example, to comment and come up, get a voice.
"Step up, because I don’t think somebody who is ranked top 50 in the world can make a huge change. I don’t believe in that."
Look out for the full Tennis Legends vodcast and podcast featuring Jurgen Melzer and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, released on Thursday 2 July at 19:00 UK time.
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