american tennis player Reilly Opelka (17th in the world ranking) spoke in an interview with the media TENNIS on the current situation of the ATP and revealed his position regarding the management by the body.
The ATP is a men’s club. And that needs to change, that culture needs to be changed. I would choose someone less involved in tennis, because when you have someone so close to this, someone used to the real mess that is the ATP, this happens. The ATP has been a circus for a very long time. All the other global sports are doing great but tennis is not and I think that’s because of his leadership.” Opelka said.
In turn, the American referred to those in charge of managing the entity: “I think Andrea Gaudenzi should resign. We need a new leadership. And I don’t mean it, it’s nothing personal against them. They are good men. Massimo (Calvelli, ATP CEO) is a good person, but I don’t understand him. No offense to Massimo, you can’t possibly go from being a Nike rep, sending packages or getting the right clay shoes for Rublev, to becoming the CEO of one of the world’s biggest global sports. That doesn’t happen in any other sport.
“If there is so much transparency and everything is fine, how is it possible that the prize money in Acapulco this year was less than in 2019? You had five of the six best players in the world. There was Nadal, the best in all history, Zverev, Tsitsipas and there were no capacity restrictions and on top of that in a new even bigger stadium that fills up every night. Has no sense. Why then are we going backwards?” Opelka closed.
