Professional tennis tours launch joint app to make sport more ‘unified’

News and score updates from the men’s and women’s tennis tours are to be combined into a single mobile app for the first time as part of efforts to make the sport more “unified”.

Currently, the Men’s ATP and Women’s WTA tours have separate apps, but these will be replaced from Wednesday by ATP WTA Live, which will offer real-time updates, scores and stats and behind-the-scenes content from across the professional game.

The two tours said the change comes as demand for a more unified experience has increased, with many fans of the sport now keen to follow both the men’s and women’s game.

Dan Ginger, senior vice president, brand and marketing at the ATP and WTA, said the decision to create a single app would help fans keep up to date with every match and major story in the sport more easily.

“The ATP Tour and Hologic WTA Tour are part of the same season-long narrative and share many of the same events. ATP WTA Live has been launched to make it easier for fans to follow the story of both tours in one app,” he said.

“Our broader ambition is to make tennis a more unified, consistent, premium product that serves the modern tennis fan. Launching ATP WTA Live today is a significant step in that journey.”

Women’s world number three player, Paula Badosa, said: “Similar to our fans all over the world, we as professional athletes are often on the go.

“This new joint app will help all of us keep up with the latest tennis news and scores in a much easier way. I’m excited to share this with the fans so they can follow all the action throughout the season.”

Men’s world number five, Stefanos Tsitsipas, said it was “really powerful” for the sport to “come together to tell its story”.

“As players, we know how passionate tennis fans are about both tours,” he said.

“It’s great to offer fans another window into our shared world through the new joint app.”

The new app is free to download from Apple’s App Store and Google Play for Android users.