Dubai: The top official from the world of professional tennis has backed men's sport to scale even greater heights in the future.
Brad Drewett, the ATP's new Executive Chairman and President, believes there is no need for him to revolutionise the sport following his appointment on January 1.
"Would I change anything? Men's tennis at the moment is as strong as it has ever been, both on and off the court. We have an amazing group of players and three of these — Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer — are among the best sportsmen in the world today," Drewett told Gulf News in a candid chat.
"And then there is a band of exciting names like Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Tomas Berdych, David Ferrer, Andy Murray and Gael Monfils who all have great personalities. And this depth goes all the way down to 20 and even the top 50.
"We have such great players on court and commercially, television and sponsorships are very strong. My role is to keep this momentum and maintain this growth going in the same direction." Tennis has been a major aspect of Drewett's life for many years, whether as a professional player on the ATP World Tour, or now on the business side of the game. Before taking on his new role, he had served as the ATP's CEO for the International Group, since 2006, overseeing the ATP's operations in the Middle East, Asia and Pacific regions.
Great responsibility
Prior to that, Drewett led the region as Managing Director from 2003 to 2005 and was Executive Vice-Chairman from 1999 to 2003. He had also been an elected member on the ATP Player Council from 1993 to 1999 and an elected representative on the ATP Player Board.
"I am very excited with this new role after being involved with tennis all my life. Men's tennis, I believe, is one of the greatest sports. It's very successful on the planet at the moment and it is a great responsibility to lead the organisation for the next two years," he said.
"The major challenge for me is to maximise the true potential that we have and obviously we are doing very well now, but we need to take things a bit higher."
The 53-year-old will meet the ATP Board for the first time in Monte Carlo in April and that is when he proposes to present his plans to push men's tennis to another level.
