Outgoing Tennis SA boss Richard Glover will take up a Vice-President role at the ATP Tour’s London office in January.
Glover announced in August that he would be stepping down as Chief Executive of Tennis South Africa at the end of the year, after five years at the helm.
His initial four-year contract was up in September last year, but he extended it for another year with the governing body, in the wake of the impact of Covid-19 on tennis in South Africa.
Glover’s VP role at the ATP Tour will see him run the second tier Challenger Tour globally and cover a number of other areas, including data rights, streaming rights, and new markets, along with operationally managing the ATP Tour’s relationship with the International Tennis Federation, where he is likely to engage closely with another South African, ITF COO Kelly Fairweather.
“It’s a great opportunity to work on a global basis and to take some of the experience I’ve learnt in South Africa and apply it,” says Glover. “The ATP is at a really interesting stage of its evolution. You’ve got Federer and Nadal, and to a lesser extent, Djokovic reaching the end of their careers, and what does that mean for the future of men’s tennis?”
He’s also got some thoughts on the make-up of the game, globally, from an organisational point of view.
“Tennis, internationally, is quite fragmented,” says Glover. “You’ve got the ATP that runs the men’s professional game, you’ve got the WTA that runs the women’s professional game, and the ITF, which is the global custodian of tennis, and I think it’s quite fragmented, in terms of three bodies operating in the same space. There’s also some big questions regarding how you consolidate that fragmentation and how these bodies work more closely together.”
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Reflecting on his five-year stint as CEO of Tennis SA, Glover is proud of what he says he, the organisation’s board, and the team under him have achieved.
When TSA announced his departure in August, it detailed what it felt was evidence of Glover’s success at the helm of the organisation, including:
- a 400% growth in annual revenue – by doubling membership numbers, signing and retaining multiple sponsors and securing a three-year broadcasting partnership with the SABC
- increasing the number and quality of international events in the country – including hosting a prestigious ITF Junior Grade A and the return of ATP Challenger tournaments
- launching multiple grassroots initiatives – including Growthpoint National Development Centres, Growthpoint Top Guns – Club Champs, the BNP Paribas Coaches programme, and the BNP Paribas RCS Rising Star Tennis schools’ project
- ensuring that the federation and the wider tennis ecosystem remained sustainable during the Covid-19 pandemic
“I think we’ve got the engine of Tennis South Africa running again,” says Glover. “There’s fresh urgency and momentum in the sport, and it’s definitely on an upward trajectory, but it’s got a long way to go.”
That journey, according to Glover, includes reviewing the structure of Tennis SA, and making changes – something he will be recommending to the TSA authorities at his final board presentation.
“A feasibility study needs to be conducted to see if we can split the organisation into two – an arm that looks purely at grassroots and an arm that looks at the professional side – and I think that’s really important from a focus perspective,” he says.
This idea is spun out of the fact that tennis – like a lot of sports in South Africa – is still, according to Glover, controlled by the provinces, which are amateur volunteer-based organisations, and whilst he says there are lots of dedicated people within those organisations, it’s clear that this is an obstacle to completely professionalising the sport and creating a truly high-performance environment.
Glover believes TSA would do well to replicate the South African golf model, which has GolfRSA looking after grassroots and the Sunshine Tour focused on the professional side.
Structure, though, is not the only challenge for tennis in South Africa.
“The challenges are the same facing any sports federation in this country, regardless of size,” says Glover. “That’s the financial side and sustainability. Transformation is another challenge, but it’s also an opportunity, and tennis is starting to realise there’s a massive growth opportunity to transform the sport – a process we’ve started. But, once again, it’s a journey and doesn’t happen overnight”.
That’s why the development and progression of a Kholo Montsi – who has been ranked 12th in the world at junior level and is currently 780th in the world at the top level at the age of 19 – is so important, so that tennis in South Africa can undergo a change in perception and create its own black tennis heroes. That’s notwithstanding the path blazed – and contribution – of someone like doubles specialist Raven Klaasen, who has been a standout international performer for some time now, but at 39 is coming to the end of his career.
“Tennis is very appealing to the black population in South Africa and, in fact, the number one demographic from a fans’ perspective is black female,” says Glover. “But, there still is the perception that tennis is very much an elitist ‘white’ sport, and whilst it’s changing, it’s probably changing in ways that people don’t even realise, and it’s still a reality we have to overcome.”
Another reality to overcome is the fact that the South African Open, in the form of the ‘SA Tennis Open’ was last staged in 2011, when it was an ATP World Tour 250 series event and Kevin Anderson claimed the title. South Africa has hosted two ATP Challenger events for the past three years, but, unfortunately, a return to hosting a top tier ATP event does still seem a long way off, due to the financial investment required.
“That’s the next step, but the big challenge is the exchange rate,” says Glover. “First you’ve got to find a week and buy a licence, which costs somewhere between $500,000 (R7.82m) and $1m (R15.6m), and then to run an ATP 250 event, you’re probably in for about R60m for that week. So, it’s a substantial investment, although I do think the winds of change are blowing and a lot of people are noticing that there are some good things happening with South African tennis.”
Let’s hope those winds are blowing in the right direction, as tennis in South Africa embarks on its next major challenge – finding a successor to Glover, who is now, seemingly, moving on to bigger things, satisfied with his stint in charge of the sport in South Africa.
“I’m hoping most people will feel that I’ve left tennis in a better place than I found it five years ago,” he says, “and I’m hoping the person who succeeds me eventually leaves with tennis in an even better state.”
Dylan Rogers
