Justin Gimelstob is remarkably energetic at 5.30 on a New York morning, having just arrived home for Chanukkah and its eight days of enlightenment and celebration. From there, he will fly to Australia and what he expects will be another celebration, that of the choice he and his fellow ATP board members have made for the man to lead men’s professional tennis into a defining era.

The American, who turns 32 next month and was once tagged the most quotable player in the men’s game, has had to learn to become a good listener as he sits in judgment on the candidates vying to replace Etienne de Villiers, the former Disney executive, who announced in August that he would be stepping down as the ATP’s executive chairman and president at the end of the year. It is a role that not only needs to be redefined but demands the full range of sporting wiles.

Gimelstob retired from the tour last year, having reached a career-high singles ranking of No 63, and has since mixed TV commentary and political manoeuvring. Having been denied in his first attempt to join the ATP board, he was voted on as a player representative at Wimbledon last summer and is driven to provide those he only recently faced across the net with a leader who will not let them down in a job that requires the patience of Job.

He says that the list of candidates, both from within tennis and other sports, has been “incredible”. The choice is expected to be confirmed before the Australian Open starts in Melbourne on January 19. “It has been like a crash course in things you never learnt at Harvard Business School,” Gimelstob said. “I have met the most amazing people in this process, in which I have felt a huge responsibility to look after the interests of the game and particularly the players.

“We have the top guys all engaging, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are on the Player Council, they feel they are better represented and that has to be imperative. The person who gets this job will have the best opportunity, the best skill-sets, the finest capabilities of anyone else in the major sports of the world. There are a lot of changes required, it’s going to be tough in the current economic downturn so we need someone with political, commercial, management and communication skills.”

The inside track has suggested a present member of the ATP executive taking over and Gimelstob admits to being “incredibly impressed” by the internal staff, the pick of whom is Brad Drewett, the Australian who has been in charge of their international office.

There has been a decent shout, too, for Adam Helfant, a 43-year-old graduate of Harvard who has spent the past 13 years with Nike, rising to the post of corporate vice-president. Nadal and Federer, who both wear its apparel, might like the sound of that.