Everyone who follows tennis is quite familiar with two things: first, the sport is very fragmented and the various constituencies often have (what they think are) competing self-interests; second, the length and number of events on the tournament calendar needs to be adjusted.  The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour’s Roadmap for 2010 includes some plans related to changing the “level” of certain tournaments and, therefore, the presence of Top 10 players.  As a result, the USTA is now very concerned about the future viability of some of its summer U.S. Open Series tournaments, e.g. the Chase tournament in Los Angeles.  The USTA and WTA are continuing to discuss the proposed changes.  At the same time, the USTA has set aside $10 million to create a rival women's tour should its concerns not be addressed.  Do you realize how many kids could be introduced to tennis with $10 million?  There have been competing tours and even a player boycott of Wimbledon in the history of tennis, but haven't we moved past all that silliness?  Let's hope the “powers that be” see fit to find their way to a blueprint for the future which doesn’t create even more friction in an already fragmented sport... that is a future without rival tours.