It follows a weekend of meetings between the Grand Slams and the ITF over the long-term health and growth of tennis.
It resulted in the committee inviting other key constituents to participate in a possible new governance partnership.
Said a joint statement from ATP chief executive officer Mark Miles and WTA Tour chief executive officer Kevin Wulff: "For the past several months, the WTA Tour and ATP have worked together to
develop common priorities for the future growth of the sport.
"We are pleased that the Grand Slam Committee has met and now is prepared to join with the ATP, WTA Tour and our tournament and player members in discussions aimed at ensuring the long-term health and growth of tennis. We're also encouraged that the Grand Slams are focused on many of the same topics as our organisations and our members."
"While our agendas have much in common with the Grand Slam Committee's, the WTA Tour and ATP believe that there are important differences in the perspectives of the Grand Slam Committee and our organisations.
"In particular, although we understand the Grand Slam Committee's desire to strengthen their tournaments and Fed Cup/Davis Cup competitions, we disagree with the suggestion that no tournament other than the Grand Slams should be longer than eight days.
"Our players and tournaments are convinced that a limited number of
tournaments using the popular and successful format of the NASDAQ-100 Open and Pacific Life Open, with their additional days of competition and larger playing fields, are essential to focusing the public's attention on our sport and players, and add great value. We are committed to achieving our objective of creating a third such event in Europe, and we're working with our premier European tournaments to achieve this objective as early as 2005.
"While we appreciate the Grand Slams' comments regarding the need for them to support the international promotion of the game, and to provide fair rewards for professional players, we also remain concerned that their view of what is appropriate investment towards these ends is significantly less than what is required.
"Nevertheless, the ATP and WTA Tour look forward to continuing their combined work, and to beginning a dialogue with the Grand Slam Committee focused on achieving consensus on growing the sport."
