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“It’s A Lot More Difficult” – Andy Roddick On Roger Federer’s ATP-WTA Merger Proposal

Published 05/12/2020, 12:09 PM EDT

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A lot of opinions have cropped up on the impending ATP-WTA merger. Andy Roddick has finally joined the queue to state his stand on the matter as well. While it has received an overwhelmingly favorable response, Roddick chose to be cautious while supporting the emotion behind the idea. According to him, a lot of things need to be figured out before the wheels are set rolling.

He also took a dig at those who were busy hashtagging on Twitter but had little to no idea of the on-ground situation. In fact, Roddick admitted he was no expert on the issue himself. And that’s why he chooses to refrain from diving deep into the conversation.

Roddick made all these comments during a Q&A session on Twitter for his employer, Tennis Channel.

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What did Andy Roddick say? 

Roddick expressed some degree of skepticism about the novel idea. However, he chose to couch it in ignorance.

“I don’t know. I have ideas on what it would take for any business to merge with a similar business. One being, you try to accumulate assets to make your position stronger at the negotiating table. If the WTA and ATP were a United front and they went to the slams and wanted something or any of the other powers that be in tennis, they would be stronger if representation of the men and women of the game.”

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“Hope it happens”– Roddick

Andy reiterated that his knowledge of the issue was very limited. Subsequently, he decided to avoid developing any strong opinions about it. In fact, we should all take a page from his book and wait and watch how the process evolves.

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“But I don’t know enough about the inner workings, who’s in charge on both sides of the aisle. I don’t know what the barriers are as far as rhetoric. I don’t know who’s books are strong, what they look like. How you bring those assets into what would be a merge. So I have a lot of questions and for me, it’s a lot more difficult than just hashtagging a clever saying on Twitter and having everyone go “Yeah!”. Once that dies, you have to work and see if it makes financial sense for both sides. Group together if there’s strength in numbers. I think there would be if they’re organized the right way but there are a lot of complexities to get to that point. I personally hope it happens but I don’t think it’s as easy as a hashtag on Twitter.”

That seems like a pretty balanced answer. You don’t want to swing one way or the other without gully grasping all the details of the issue. What do you think of the ideas that have been presented here by Andy Roddick?

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Written by:

Aryan Sharma

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Aryan Sharma is a WWE and Tennis author and editor at EssentiallySports. Being a journalism graduate from Delhi University, he combines his love for creating content with an astute knowledge of almost three eras of professional wrestling. He's also a Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova fan and likes to write on the social impact of these two legends beyond their achievements on the tennis court.
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