WTA CEO Stacey Allaster tells the Herald of Scotland that talks have been held with the ATP about combining their year-end championships. The WTA Championships in Istanbul are contracted through 2014, while the ATP World Tour Finals in London are contracted through 2012.
The biggest problem appears to be that the two tours' seasons end at substantially different times. The WTA Championships are being held this week, while the men’s won’t start until the week of November 20. However, the men’s season will be shortened by two weeks in 2012, but that will still put them two weeks apart. Another potential problem is that the ATP is currently led by a lame duck CEO, Adam Helfant, and it is unclear what the new CEO will think of the idea.
"Combined events are very successful for our sport," Allaster said. "There’s no doubt that fans enjoy seeing men and women compete on the same stage. We’ve talked about combing the two year-end championships. There’s no easy solution, but wherever it makes sense to co-operate, we’re looking for those opportunities… The guys are focused on their calendar. We were able to make the changes to ours. If we could have them aligned, absolutely it’s something that we would be open to exploring."