WTA CEO Stacey Allaster has told the *New York Times*that the WTA is looking at launching a one-week national team event. The new format would create a potential rival to the ITF's annual Fed Cup event.
Allaster said the WTA was considering an eight-team event beginning in three years, with seven two-player teams qualifying based on the singles ranking of their No. 1 player, along with one wildcard team. The idea came from surveys of 5,000 tennis and non-tennis fans in five markets conducted during the first half of this year.
"What the marketplace has told us—interested host cities, broadcasters and sponsors—is that if we were to do this, they’d want it to be official," she said. “They’d want it be the best of the best and regular competitive tennis. So maybe we would have no-ad scoring and some all-star type elements, but what came away clear for us is that they wanted bona fide best-of-the-best competition if they were to invest millions.”
The suggestion follows recent conflict between the WTA and the ITF over Fed Cup commitments, with the WTA objecting to the ITF's proposed move to require players to play four Fed Cup ties to be eligible for the Olympics.
However, Allaster said the event was not supposed to replace Fed Cup, and that the ITF had not agreed to previous suggestions for a one-week event.
"I don’t think this will impact them,” she said. “We can do Fed Cup, and this is possibly a new event we add.”
One of Fed Cup's challenges has been the reluctance of top players to play regularly, and Allaster did not claim that a new WTA event would draw a complete field.
"You get mixed views,” she said. “You have the younger ones that see it as a great opportunity. I think it would be fair to say that those who are in the twilight stage of their career, while they support the idea and understand it, adding more to their calendar is not what they’re thinking.