Roger Federer Proposes Merging Men's, Women's Tennis Tours

Roger Federer has raised the prospect of merging the governing bodies that oversee the men's and women's professional tennis tours.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion began a string of tweets on Wednesday by saying the shutdown of tennis because of the coronavirus pandemic has given the sport an ideal opportunity to assess its future.

"Am I the only one thinking that now is the time for men's and women's tennis to be united and come together as one?" Federer wrote, sparking an initial flurry of replies.

Grand Slam champions Simona Halep were among those replying to express their agreement with the idea.

"As you know per our discussions I completely agree that it would be great to get out of this world crisis with the union of men's and women's tennis in one only organisation," Nadal tweeted.

The professional era in tennis started in 1968, and the ATP was founded in 1972 and has run the men's game since. The WTA was founded by Billie Jean King in 1973, uniting the women's professional game into one tour.

Federer emphasized he was "not talking about merging competition on the court," but rather the two governing bodies.

Federer also tweeted that the merger "probably should have happened a long time ago."

"But maybe now is really the time," he added. "These are tough times in every sport and we can come out of this with 2 weakened bodies or 1 stronger body."

Former WTA CEO Anne Worcester called for a merger of the men's and women's tours in an interview with Forbes this month.

All of professional tennis has been suspended until at least mid-July because of the coronavirus outbreak, plunging the sport into financial problems because of a loss of income from things like ticket sales and media rights.

Federer, 38, had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in February. The Swiss great had planned to be sidelined for at least four months before the outbreak suspended sports around the world. He has tweeted videos of him practicing during the pandemic.