Telegraph Sport has revealed that Saudi Arabia is making a move in the tennis world. The country’s $2 billion offer for the merger of men’s tour and women’s tour can be taken or left.

According to sources, after the Premium tour discussions in Indian Wells on Saturday last week, ATP chair Andrea Gaudenzi requested that the Masters tournaments stay behind when the four grand slams left the room. Gaudenzi informed them of an offer made by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Deal is time-sensitive and will expire in 90 days if not accepted. The four grand slams are not included in this PIF deal.

Gaudenzi, who has been advocating for this since last summer, believes that the biggest benefit for PIF is a Masters 1000 event in the first week. This was something the Saudis wanted from the start and it’s what they have always wanted. Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley was opposed to this idea and has instead established the United Cup Team Event in the same calendar slot. Tiley’s animosity with Gaudenzi led to the creation of the Premium Tour last year.

Gaudenzi’s decision to travel to Riyadh instead of attending the Australian Open in January, to negotiate with PIF, is now even more notable. Last month, a small sponsorship deal, putting PIF branding onto the ATP rankings was announced. But that was only a beginning.

This could lead to further tensions between the two tours, and even the four slams. Especially since United States Tennis Association Chief Revenue Officer Lew Sherr has insisted that the ATP and WTA Chairmen be invited as a matter of courtesy to the Premium Tour meetings on Saturday.

It has now been revealed that Gaudenzi was working on his own unifying tennis model, where he would eventually become the commissioner of both tours.

The ATP has already moved their annual tournaments from Miami to Madrid early in May. This is where it is expected that the PIF offer will be decided.

According to a new proposal, the Saudi Masters would be the first event of the year. It is a well-kept secret that the WTA has already planned their finals for Riyadh, early in November. The PIF Tour, a new tennis calendar, will now include visits to Saudi Arabia.

The priority would be to combine more events, and the next round of TV rights, data rights, etc. would be offered as a single package, leaving the Slams alone. The WTA is less successful commercially than the ATP. Their last reported annual revenues in 2022 were just below PS90million, compared to the ATP’s PS238million.

A merger of equal parts is difficult to sell to male players because they fear dilution in their market value. A huge cash incentive from PIF could solve this awkward dilemma.

Gaudenzi’s response to the Premium Tour is certainly dramatic. It threatens to degrade the ATP Tour and WTA Tours. This is typical of a man who has a reputation for striking audacious deals.

Gaudenzi, a 50-year old Italian, has a solid sporting background. He reached the top 20 of the ATP Tour in the mid-1990s. Since the ATP voted in 2022 to remove ranking points from Wimbledon due to its exclusions of Russian and Belarusian athletes, his relationship with the slams has become a little chilly. The incident with Tiley during the first week of the season last year only made matters worse.

The PIF bid is part of a Saudi trend in sports that has already disrupted the golf industry through the LIV Tour and brought the world’s biggest boxing matches to Riyadh. The sovereign wealth fund in the UK owns Newcastle United.

Saudi Arabia has yet to see any sign of the rival Premium Tour model. The parallel discussion held in Indian Wells earlier that day identified 10 tournaments as the framework around the four slams. None of these were to be played there.

As part of the ATP sponsorship agreement last month, Queen’s University was offered a substantial sum to promote PIF on its courtside branding. However, they declined. Insiders believe that the All England Club was consulted, even though the Lawn Tennis Association made the decision. Wimbledon is more hesitant to get into bed with Saudi Arabia than the ATP.

The tournaments, and the players that make up the tour, now have the option to choose between two models. The Gaudenzi Gambit offers Saudi cash immediately, while the Premium tour model requires stakeholders believe that a streamlined slam calendar would be more lucrative than the status-quo.

In the long run, it seems that the Premium Tour may be the better option. There is a good chance that the PIF bid could win out due to expediency.