© Getty Images Sport – Matthew Stockman
Coco Gauff’s coach Brad Gilbert is all in for tennis partnering up with Saudi Arabia as he believes that’s the best thing for the players and something that would finally give the players across the ATP and WTA Tours to be compensated as they deserve.
In late 2023, the rumors began to swirl around that the Grand Slams and Masters events may be looking to make a proposal to the Saudis that would see the formation of an elite circuit which would be called the “Premium Tour.” But under that model, ATP and WTA tournaments from the 500 and 250 would suffer big-time because all the top and best players would switch to the Premium Tour.
The ATP and WTA noticed what was happening behind the scenes and reacted by starting to work on their own proposal to the Saudis. And a couple of days ago, The Telegraph reported that the Saudis gave the ATP and WTA a $2 billion offer with a 90-day expiration date to merge the men’s and women’s Tours. If accepted, the new Tour would be called the “PIF Tour” but the four Grand Slams would not be a part of it as it stands now.
Under that model, male and female players would be paid equally and it would include a Masters 1000 event in the first week of the season and the WTA Finals would also be…
