The Laver Cup has proved to be a hugely successful and wonderfully lucrative tournament since it started back in 2017, but so far, it has only featured male players.
Berlin is the host city for this year’s Laver Cup, with Roger Federer and his long-time manager Tony Godsick playing a prominent role in the proceedings in the German capital.
There was a significant announcement on day one of the 2024 Laver Cup as tournament organisers and the ATP Tour announced a five-year extension to their existing certification agreement, which began with Laver Cup 2019.
This extension ensured the Laver Cup will continue to benefit from the ATP Tour’s global reach, marketing services, including press and social media, and operational support, including officials and physios.
A press conference was staged in Berlin as the new deal was confirmed and Godsick spoke to the media at length about the tournament’s plans for the future.
When he was asked if there were plans to introduce players from the WTA Tour to the Laver Cup, he seemed to suggest the current plan is to continue to make the event a male-only competition.
“That’s a very good question,” he said, responding to a question about women joining the Laver Cup party.
“Look, there already exists the Hopman Cup. I don’t know what shape and form or when it actually takes place now, but there is an event, I think it’s now in the spring or in the summer, it used to be in January before the Australian Open, which combines men and women.
“The format is very important in this one and we spent a lot of time before we started, making sure, we tried to get it right.
“We didn’t know it would be as successful and it would sort of hit and stick as well as it did, but I think all of a sudden if we change this and added women to it, it would sort of be like the Hopman Cup that kind of exists already. So I think we will continue down this path.
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“I started in women’s tennis 32 years ago when I started working for IMG, and I was very fortunate to work with Monica Seles, Lindsay Davenport, Anna Kournikova, Daniela Hantuchova, I married a WTA tennis player, Mary Joe Fernandez, I have two wonderful kids with her, so
“I’m a women’s tennis person in my blood. So if the opportunity exists for us to do something, I don’t think we can call it the women’s Laver Cup.
“I think we’d have to call it something else and create it, but the format works. So hopefully in the future, we can figure something out.”
When asked if he would consider starting a women’s Laver Cup, he added: “In terms of the women’s Laver Cup, we’re going to get this one right first.
“We’re going to keep building it. Our goal is to be like the Ryder Cup, and the Ryder Cup has a 90-year head start on us. I think they’re on their 97th year. I think actually we are doing really well, considering that we are a historical event like they are but with no history yet, or very little. In the future, we look at different opportunities.
“I have literally the best events team in the world in any sport, bar none, so if there are opportunities for us to do adjacencies or other events, I’d love to do it, because I know it would be successful knowing exactly how we do this one. So we will see what happens in the future, but we are open and we entertain a lot of different opportunities, so let’s see.
“I started in women’s tennis 32 years ago when I started working for IMG, and I was very fortunate to work with Monica Seles, Lindsay Davenport, Anna Kournikova, Daniela Hantuchova.
“I married a WTA tennis player, Mary Joe Fernandez, I have two wonderful kids with her, so I’m a women’s tennis person in my blood. So if the opportunity exists for us to do something, I don’t think we can call it the women’s Laver Cup.
“I think we’d have to call it something else and create it, but the format works. So hopefully in the future, we can figure something out.”
Godsick also confirmed he has been approached by a host of major cities around the world who are keen to host future Laver Cups.
“The beautiful thing about the Laver Cup, which sort of solidifies the fact that we know we’re successful and people liked us, is we have been contacted by so many different countries,” he said.
“We’ve been contacted by countries in the Middle East, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, obviously we’ve been to North America a lot, South America, so we are spending a lot of time looking to where we can go in the future, and so anyway, to be seen where we will go.”
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