Another area we could look at is the warm-up – is it too long, should it stay in its current format? I also want us to look at the player’s code of conduct, in the hope that we can find ways to allow players to express themselves more on court. Then the real personalities can come out more, and the fans can engage with the players as people and not just as tennis players.

The world doesn’t know enough about the players outside Djokovic, Federer, Nadal and Murray. That’s a mistake that starts with the players and their agents, and their understanding of what branding and exposure mean. More exposure means more income. There are more fascinating personalities on the tour, but players and their agents don’t understand about getting exposure for them. That becomes a problem for tennis, because once Federer stops playing, or once Nadal is too injured to play, who’s going to be the next big thing, or the rival to Djokovic that everyone wants to watch? If the next big rivalry is Djokovic and Nishikori, that’s great for Europe and Asia, but without getting Nishikori better known it’s a disaster for America. It’s not the players’ fault, it’s their advisers’, and the ATP has to advise players on the need to spend longer with journalists and express their views about whatever they feel strongly about. The players and the sport will benefit from it.

It will also get rid of a bit of the dishonesty about the image of tennis – the idea that the players are all friends. It’s very difficult for a top player to have a genuine friendship with a competitor. In fact I don’t think nowadays the top 10 are friends. They respect each other, and it’s good that they set standards of good behaviour so youngsters get the message that you have to respect your opponents. But don’t be fooled by how much they hug each other after matches – that’s partly staged, it looks good, but I don’t think it’s truthful. In my days my Davis Cup teammates were friends, although I must admit that was because I felt they weren’t real rivals and I could tell them at night what I was going through, without them being good enough to take advantage of it on court. I would never spill my beans to Edberg, to Wilander, to Lendl, to McEnroe. As I’ve said, Michael Stich and I were never friends, and when we played in the same Davis Cup team in 1995 we kept it very businesslike. I therefore hope that through the ATP advisory board I can contribute to tennis fans seeing a bit more of the top players’ personalities, so we enjoy real rivalries – respectful rivalries, for sure, but without the pretence that these guys are friends with each other.

Finally we need to take a look at the calendar. The new ‘third week’ between the French Open and Wimbledon is a good thing since it emphasises the importance of grass court tennis and the opportunity for better preparation can only enhance the prestige of Wimbledon. The Davis Cup obviously needs some attention, but we need to be open-minded about some of the other ideas for promoting tennis. I was involved in the first International Professional Tennis League (IPTL) in Asia in November and December 2014 – both as an ambassador and doing interviews with all the leading players for the official television feed. In many ways the IPTL was a great success, it certainly took the world’s top players to parts of the globe they normally never play in, and we need to have a calendar that’s open to initiatives like this, rather than treating them as exhibitions that have to find a slot in the few cramped weeks of the off season.