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The new ATP Player Council, as voted by players, was announced on Friday evening at the general player meeting at Wimbledon.

A number of existing members were re-elected for an additional two-year term on the Council, including Novak Djokovic, Kevin Anderson and Yen-Hsun Lu. Elsewhere, John Isner, Robin Haase and Sam Querrey return to the Council having served previous terms, Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares continue as doubles representatives for a second consecutive term and newcomers Vasek Pospisil and Stefano Travaglia serve their first term.

Members elected by their peers to serve on the ATP Player Council through June 2020 are:

1-50 Singles: Kevin Anderson, Robin Haase, John Isner, Sam Querrey

51-100 Singles: Yen-Hsun Lu, Vasek Pospisil

1-100 Doubles: Jamie Murray, Bruno Soares

At-Large: Novak Djokovic, Stefano Travaglia

Alumni: Colin Dowdeswell

Coach: Daniel Vallverdu

The new ATP Player Council will have its first meeting in New York prior to the US Open, where the President and Vice President will be elected.

Chris Kermode, ATP Executive Chairman & President, said: “Congratulations to all Council members who have been elected by their peers to represent the player group over the next two years. The Player Council has played a big role in achieving significant growth for the players in our sport, and I would like to thank all the existing and outgoing members for their hard work and dedication in recent years.”

The ATP Player Council meets several times a year and makes recommendations to ATP Management and the ATP Board of Directors through the three Player Board representatives, whom the Council elects. The current three Board representatives are Justin Gimelstob, Roger Rasheed and Alexander Inglot.

ATP and Dunlop announced today a new, five-year partnership that will see Dunlop become the Official Ball of the ATP Tour and the Nitto ATP Finals beginning in 2019.

Dunlop will also become a Silver Partner of both of the ATP Tour and the Nitto ATP Finals. The partnership expands Dunlop’s already extensive portfolio of partnerships with ATP Tour events, which includes a Next Gen ATP Finals Gold Partnership that began in 2018.

“This new agreement is a testament to Dunlop’s continued commitment to the sport of tennis and we are excited to build a long-term partnership with such a world-renowned brand,” said Chris Kermode, ATP Executive Chairman & President.

“Dunlop has exhibited the foremost standards of quality and attention to detail throughout the process of testing and developing the new ATP Tour Official Ball, which ensures the highest levels of performance and consistency for our players across all conditions and playing surfaces.”

“This is a significant moment for the brand, and we are delighted to become the Official Ball of the ATP Tour and Nitto ATP Finals,” said Masahiro Asahino, Head of Racket Sports for SRI.

“Dunlop is often referred to as the ‘No.1 Ball on Tour’ and is used at more ATP tournaments than any other brand; the multi-year partnership is a testament to this and recognises our commitment to developing a new ATP Tour Official Ball of the highest standard and giving players more consistency on the Tour.

“We are excited to connect with millions of fans from around the world on this global stage.”

In addition to the Nitto ATP Finals and the Next Gen ATP Finals, the Dunlop ATP Tour Official Ball will be used at numerous other high-profile ATP Tour events spread across the entirety of the ATP calendar, on all playing surfaces.

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – On the courts at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, there were players scrambling for spots in the main draw at the BNP Paribas Open.

But in the boardrooms at a nearby luxury resort, there has been scrambling of a different sort going on.

Sponsored

And after what ATP Tour Player Council representative John Isner termed a “six-hour meeting” Tuesday night, it appears the council members still could not come to a majority decision about the future ATP CEO Chris Kermode.

Kermode was a compromise choice back when he first took the job back in Nov. 2013. It was six months after the tragic death of predecessor, Brad Drewitt, of Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The 54-year-old Brit will see his second three-year term as executive chairman and president end at the end of this season. But there are many on the Player Council – notably president Novak Djokovic – who want to see a change at the top.

The fallout from this has only made the dance between the players and the tournament owners even more delicate. The players want an increased share of revenue from the tournaments that, in broad terms, would not exist without them.

The tournaments, of course, want to rein in those demands. The tournament directors want to continue reaping the benefits of the events they have developed and expanded on the basis of those talents.

Player Council still deadlocked

Ultimately, we’re told by a very well-informed source that even after many hours of debate, the council still couldn’t muster the majority required to make the unilateral decision not to renew Kermode for a third three-year term. Nor, obviously, could they muster a majority to renew his deal.

That was true after council meetings at the Australian Open in mid-January. And it appears none of the players have changed their stand since then.

ATP Player Council postpones decision on Kermode


And so, Tennis.Life has been told that they have on-passed that decision to their three representatives on the ATP Tour board of directors.

The ATP board meets on Thursday morning here in the desert. And so, three men will be charged with making a very difficult decision. And if two of them vote against Kermode, it is expected that he would be out at the end of the year when his contract expires.

Kermode cannot be the tiebreaker on a six-man council, or even vote, on the matter of his contract renewal. But five of the six board members – the other three represent the tournaments – have to be “yeas”.

If you assume the other three will vote to extend him, that means he needs two of the three “player” votes.

Gimelstob, Egdes, Inglot to decide

At the Tuesday night meeting, Tennis Channel executive David Egdes, who was an interim board representative for the players’ side, was voted in permanently.

Edges had already been on the board for a decade. But the Player Council voted to oust longtime Lleyton Hewitt coach Roger Rasheed last November for failing to vote with their wishes during the increasingly contentious revenue-sharing battle. And then, Egdes returned.

Player rep Rasheed ousted from ATP Board


Inglot is the brother of doubles player Dominic and a former executive at the sports data firm Sportsradar. He is the third player representative on the ATP Board, and joined the board less than a year ago.

But it is Gimelstob, who has been very much in the news lately as he defends a battery felony charge in court, who is the man on the hot seat.

Gimelstob battery case postponed – again


There has often been talk that Gimelstob was on track to be the eventual successor to Kermode in the top ATP job. Obviously, his recent legal woes added several very large potholes to that road.

But even if the assumption is that the American would vote against Kermode’s remaining out of self-interest, the reality is that he would be following the wishes of a group on the player council he represents.

If Gimelstob voted to keep Kermode, he would be voting against the preference of some of those on the council who back him in his role on the board of directors. That group includes Djokovic. But it also reportedly includes fellow Americans Sam Querrey and John Isner and Canadian Vasek Pospisil. All those players, we’re told, want a change.

Nadal pro-Kermode, Federer neutral

Not surprisingly, during the media availability of the top players at the BNP Paribas Open Wednesday, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer were asked to weigh in.

Federer was president of the council from 2008-2014.

Nadal, a former vice-president during Federer’s term, resigned in 2012 over what was said to be frustration over the lack of progress in changing the ranking system.

He has been consistent in his opinion that Kermode is a nice guy who has done good things for the game. Nadal believes he deserves more time to continue in the job. The Mallorcan even called out current president Djokovic in Australia for not being in better touch with him concerning the situation.

Here he is on that.



For his part, Federer said the lack of communication might have been more due to Nadal being away due to injury, and then the off-season. (Of course, these guys all have each other’s WhatsApps, but hey).

Federer said he intended to talk to Djokovic about this, back in January. It appears this has not yet occurred. If the three want to have a chat, they have until about 8 a.m. Thursday morning.

On Wednesday, Federer absolutely did not want to weigh in. And he said that regardless of how he felt about it, whatever happened would happen.



A failure to communicate?

A number of other players have recently criticized their Player Council for not being in better communication with them. Among them are veterans like Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Gaël Monfils.

Grigor Dimitrov has voiced his support for Kermode. So has Wawrinka. But none of them are on the Player Council.

A complex labyrinth of relationships

Justin Gimelstob arrested: L.A. Times


As it happens, Gimelstob is not only Isner’s former coach. He is also his very good friend. Gimelstob even made a trip to Delray Beach two weeks ago, just to support Isner at the ATP Tour event there.

So it puts Gimelstob in a bit of delicate position, both publicly and privately, with so many different forces in play.

Just to make this entire situation even more of a shining example of the mish-mash of conflicts of interest that define modern professional tennis, Egdes is a senior VP at Tennis Channel. And Gimelstob and Egdes are close.

(In the photo above from the Gimelstob arrest story, he is seen with Egdes, during his first term on the council, discussing matters on the members’ balcony at WImbledon).

Gimelstob has worked at the network the last several years as a commentator. But he is currently on a leave, as he tries to resolve his off-court legal situation.