New boss Drewett proceeding with caution into ATP minefield

Jan 18, 2012, 2:40 GMT

Melbourne - New ATP supremo Brad Drewett, a two-time ATP title winner and one-time Australian Open junior champion, is proceeding with understandable caution just a fortnight into his new post.

The Australian who has been on the inside of ATP management for more than a decade and is credited with spearheading the successful move into China as head of the organisation's Asia-Pacific region, was chosen for the job last month.

But now, Drewett, who will move from Sydney to London to run the men's tour, faces an even larger set of responsibilities, with issues arising again over length of the nearly 11-month season, the ranking system and the distribution of prize money at the Grand Slams.

But the Aussie says he won't be revealing any grand designs just yet.

'I'm someone who can 'hit the ground running,'' he said Wednesday at the Australian Open. 'I also have a board, player councils, a number of ideas, a number of things I want to address. But I need first to spend time with those groups within our organization before I start talking publicly about what my plans are.

'I hope next time we talk I can be more specific. But at this point I don't want to get ahead of the important groups within our organization by saying what I would like to achieve.' Players voiced varying opinions at a weekend annual meeting on the eve of the season's first major about the state of the game, with the 'strike' word being bandied about.

But Drewett calmed the water, saying that in decades of attending such gatherings, differing opinions expressed with fervour were the norm.

'That's their opportunity to talk about their issues, more than us sitting around saying how wonderful things are. So by definition the emphasis in that meeting is about what the issues are. 'There are frustrations out there. I plan to take them onboard, I've heard them.

'I'm very confident that my relationships across the board with the tournaments, our players, are ones which, when it comes to having any sort of discussion about any sort of issue, they're going to be constructive.

'That's the way I like to operate, in a constructive way. Hopefully that's the way people have seen me operate in the past, and that's not going to change.' Drewett took over from American lawyer and clothing company executive Adam Helfant, who left the job after three years in a reported pay dispute over a job which paid around 2 million dollars per annum.

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