The new officials of the ATP Player Council were announced on Saturday evening at the general player assembly at Wimbledon. The council members are voted by the players and will serve for a two-year term. There are returning members and new members as well.
Here are the ATP Player Council members that will serve until June 2016:
1-50 Singles: Kevin Anderson, John Isner, Gilles Simon, Stan Wawrinka
51-100 Singles: Jurgen Melzer, Sergiy Stakhovsky
1-100 Doubles: Raven Klaasen, Bruno Soares
At-Large: Eric Butorac, Andre Sa
Alumni: Yves Allegro
Coach: Claudio Pistolesi
The first meeting of the newly elected council will have its first assembly in New York prior to the start of the US Open 2014 tournament. Part of their agenda is to elect its President and Vice President. Incumbent President Roger Federer, who served on the post since 2008, elected not to seek for a fourth consecutive term.
Chris Kermode, ATP Executive Chairman & President, said: “I’d like to congratulate all the players who have been selected by their peers to represent the players on the ATP Player Council. The Council plays a critical role in the ATP’s governance of our sport. We have a good mix of previous council members returning for an additional term, as well as some new members. Having the players truly engaged in the decision-making process in our sport is hugely important.
“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Roger for the outstanding contribution he has made during the past six years as President of the ATP Player Council. The ATP World Tour is in terrific health today, not only as a result of the performance of our top players on the court, but also due to their considerable efforts off it. Generous with his time and always willing to invest his energy away from the court for the greater good of the game, Roger and his leadership in the Player Council will be missed. I have little doubt, however, that Roger will remain as engaged as ever, albeit in a less official capacity.”
Wawrinka, ranked number three, said: “It’s a very interesting time in our sport, and I’m looking forward to being able to contribute my time and energy to the Player Council in our efforts to continue to grow the ATP World Tour in years ahead.”
“It has been a great experience for me to be closely involved in some of the decision making in our sport over the past two years. I feel like we have achieved some good things with a united player group, and I look forward to continuing this good work,” said Gilles Simon of France, who will be serving for a second consecutive term.
Here are the quotes from other elected players:
Eric Butorac: “It’s a huge honour to be re-elected by my peers and be on the Council again. I’ve been on for six years so I feel like I’ve had a lot of time to understand how the ATP World Tour works, meet a lot of people behind the scenes, the Tournament Directors. Hopefully I can be very beneficial to the players in the next two years. Our council is as strong as ever and we have a large portion of it returning. Along with that, some top players like Stan and John are joining the council, which will be very beneficial moving forward.”
Sergiy Stakhovsky: “It means the players trust me hopefully and it means something was done right in the past two years with the previous Council. Hopefully we can work forward in the same way. It’s definitely going to be hard to replace Roger as the President with any of the other guys. Roger’s been a huge figure in our sport and having him as our President was a privilege. All the guys that are new to the board have been in tennis a long time. They know how the sport runs and what needs to be done to make it better.”
John Isner: “It’s very humbling that my peers elected me in. This is going to be fairly new to me, but at the same time it’s something that I wanted to do. So I’m very honoured to be on the Player Council now and I’m looking forward to all of our future meetings and to see what positive change I can bring.
