Former tournament director, Chris Kermode, will not be continuing his tenure as the ATP president and executive chairman. The decision has been met with mixed reactions from players and the general tennis community.

A statement from the Tournament Council read, “The ATP Tournament Council would like to express its sincere disappointment in the outcome of this week’s ATP Board vote regarding Chris Kermode’s role as executive chairman and president.”

“Chris has done an outstanding job in the role since 2014 at  time where the Tour has delivered unprecedented growth for the benefit of both tournaments and players. The ATP is a partnership between player and tournament that, at times, have opposing views. Chris has navigated those challenges impressively in the past five years.”

The statement continued, “The end result is that sponsorship, prize money and player pension contributions have already reached record levels under his leadership. Not to mention the creation of new events such as the Next Gen ATP Finals and the ATP Cup”

The praise concluded, “Chris has delivered emphatically on the business objectives that were set from the outset, and his track record in the past five years is irrefutable. We would like to thank Chris sincerely for his dedication, hard work and leadership since 2014  and confirm our disappointment in this outcome.”

A few players have expressed their disappointment in Kermode’s departure, like Stan Wawrinka, Lleyton Hewitt, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal among others. The above mentioned and other players wanted the Englishman to stay on.

Following the news of Kermode’s exit, there were rumours flooding the internet about who his successor would be.