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After leaders of the men’s tennis tour, including Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, said they wanted to explore a merger with the women’s circuit, the head of the Women’s Tennis Association has made it clear that the feeling is mutual.
“I’m not afraid of the full merger; I never have been,” Steve Simon, the chief executive of the WTA, said by telephone on Monday in his first extensive comments on the ATP’s interest. “I would certainly be the first to support it, because I think then you truly have the business and the strategic principles all aligned, which is what you need to do.