The Yorkshireman who has helped turn Wimbledon into the world’s premier annual sports event is being targeted as the man to confront the problems facing the global men’s tennis tour.
Ian Ritchie, the 57 year-old chief executive of the All England Club, has emerged as the frontrunner for the soon-to-be vacant job of running the worldwide ATP Tour, which is currently dealing with issues of player unrest.
Sportsmail understands the Tour's hierarchy has gathered in London this week and has already had talks with the highly-rated Ritchie about replacing American Adam Helfant, who is stepping down as the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) circuit’s chief executive in December.
Ritchie, who would be the first European to hold what is arguably the single most important position in the game, is widely respected in the all the different parts of world tennis’s fractured governance structure, and is well-qualified to tackle grievances recently expressed by the likes of Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal.
Intriguingly, he would have to lead the effort to try and get a greater proportion of prize money for the players out of the four Grand Slams, including Wimbledon, which is one of their main beefs.
While the players will rarely agree among themselves about scheduling issues, there is a more unified belief among them that the four Majors should be paying out a higher proportion of their revenues more in line with other sports. The US Open pays only 13 per cent to the players and while there are no official numbers for Wimbledon the figure is likely to be roughly the same.
Apart from presiding over Wimbledon’s continued success Ritchie, a barrister by training, is being pursued as he has worked for large media organisations and, as a director of Wembley Stadium and the Football League, has a wide knowledge of other sports.
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