ITF not concerned WTA dropped Fed Cup agreement

The ITF is not concerned that it no longer has a working agreement with the WTA over Fed Cup and new player requirements for participating in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero, TENNIS.com has learned.

The WTA and some of its players want Fed Cup participation to be de-linked from Olympic Games eligibility and have threatened to stage their own team competitions during Fed Cup weeks.  
“We don't think its changes anything,” ITF spokesperson Kris Dent said. “We haven’t had contractual agreement with ATP for years [over Davis Cup requirements]. Our priority is going strength to strength and Fed Cup has done that. Players are playing, more and more people are coming and watching, TV numbers are up. The Fed Cup final in Prague sold out in six hours…Let’s face it, there is a requirement for players every week that they play on tour.”  
The ITF recently announced that players now have to make themselves available for three ties before the 2016 Games, as opposed to the last Olympic cycle, where they only had to make themselves available for two years prior to 2012 London, provided that one of those years was 2011 or 2012.  
WTA CEO Stacey Allaster recently told Tennis Channel that she believes “our athletes are playing for their country every day… Compared to other professional sports, athletes at the caliber of ours in tennis do not have the same eligibility requirements with their national associations or their international federations. We think that is unfair.”  
Some players have also objected to the increased requirements, including Maria Sharapova and WTA Players Council members Serena Williams and Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Sharapova claimed that no one listened to her side, and Mattek-Sands recently told TENNIS.com that players were upset because the decision was “made public before they've even talked to us about it, which was upsetting for us because again, they're not even listening to the players' voices.”  
ITF spokesperson Barbara Travers isn’t sure whether the players will fulfill the new requirements and show up in Rio but “we are hopeful, but you can never tell what will happen four years from now. But the dialogue with the WTA began two years ago.  [ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti] and board member Juan Margets both flew into to [this year’s Miami tournament] and met with the players and with Maria privately. We’ve put our positions forward for a long time. The difference is semantics. We didn't agree with them, so they say they weren’t consulted. It’s not a matter of not having a dialogue, it’s not being able to agree on what our priorities are.”  
In 2013, it appears that WTA players are going to be allowed to play exhibitions during Fed Cup weeks and the WTA is considering also adding international level tournaments during those weeks in the future.  
The ITF feels that it is dealing from a position of strength because the Olympics has become such a popular competition with the players.  
One change that many players are happy about is the qualification window for the 2016 Olympics began right after London, so the November Fed Cup final between the Czech Republic and Serbia will count in the number of required Fed Cup appearances, as opposed to previous years, when the clock started at the beginning of the year following the Olympics.  
“We recognize that it’s not a perfect model, but there isn’t perfect model in the sport and everything has its assets and liabilities,” Travers said.