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An ATP-dedicated page recently shared a clip of a rally from WTA players Jessica Pegula and Ekaterina Alexandrova's Miami Open quarterfinal clash. This set fans' tongues wagging, as they speculated that an ATP-WTA merger is very much on the cards.
In September 2023, a report published by The Telegraph stated that representatives of the ATP, WTA and tournaments will meet in London for a two-day summit to plan the unification of the men's and women's tennis tours.
Saudi Arabia has recently proposed a $2 billion merger between the ATP and WTA tours as part of its push into the tennis world. The offer is valid for 90 days and will be discussed by the leaders of both tours during their meeting in Madrid next month.
Amid those rumors, Tennis TV, a streaming service renowned for its coverage of ATP Tour events excluding Grand Slams, unexpectedly shared content featuring women's tennis on social media.
It featured a thrilling rally between Jessica Pegula and Ekaterina Alexandrova from their Miami Open quarterfinal match on March 28, where the Russian emerged victorious with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 scoreline.
Tennis fans on social media were surprised to see an ATP-focused service sharing a video from a WTA match. One fan questioned:
"Why… are they posting exclusively WTA content… HUH."
Another fan asked wrote:
"'There's no chance of mergin' so why are they posting exclusive WTATV contents? Are we blind? They'll be merging and nobody will be surprised."
Another fan welcomed the development and called it a 'soft launch'.
"Keeping an eye on this Tennis TV WTA soft launch…would absolutely love if this keeps up," the fan commented.
One account pleaded with the WTA, asking them to let Tennis TV have full rights to stream the matches:
"Whatever I'm just happy tennis tv posting WTA point @WTA let them have full rights."
Here are a few more reactions from tennis fans:
Jessica Pegula spoke about Saudi Arabia's involvement in tennis on multiple occasions in 2023
In August 2023, Pegula was asked about her thoughts on the prospect of Saudi Arabia hosting the WTA Finals. While the 30-year-old expressed openness to the move, she also voiced certain reservations.
"I think that if you look at a pros and cons list, we’d obviously have to see there be a lot of pros overweighing the cons to feel comfortable going there. Whether that’s seeing them as a group maybe [having] to donate money to women’s sports or women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, to see some sort of change or action going towards helping those causes in their country," Pegula said (via Tennis Majors).
Pegula also mentioned how the Gulf country's involvement could contribute to achieving equal prize money across both tours.
"If they [Saudi Arabia] could help getting us to equal prize money, though there are negatives, there's a lot of positives that can come out of it. Hopefully we don't just look at the negatives and we can see the positives," she said.
