Days before the start of the Australian Open in Melbourne, several of the most powerful leaders in tennis gathered 10,000 miles away to chart their way out of the antitrust lawsuits that threaten their power.

The leaders of the men’s and women’s tours, and the organizers of the other three Grand Slam tournaments, spent Tuesday and Wednesday in closed-door meetings in London, according to three sources briefed on the discussions who, like all the sources in this story, were not authorized to speak publicly about them.

The leaders discussed the structure of a deal aimed at giving tournaments financial security, producing more revenue for the sport, and giving players the increased pay, benefits and voice for which they have been pushing ever harder in recent months.

Representatives for the ATP Tour and the French Tennis Federation did not immediately respond to a request for comment; a representative for the All England Club declined to comment.

Representatives for the United States Tennis Association and WTA Tour said they were not aware of the nature of the discussions and could not comment on them.

Those meetings followed a series of discussions between Andrea Gaudenzi, the chairman of the ATP Tour, and Ahmad Nassar, the executive director of the Professional Tennis Players Association, which filed those antitrust lawsuits last spring.

Both sides, alongside their lawyers, have expressed a desire to make changes to improve the sport quickly, rather than slog through a lengthy and expensive legal battle that is likely to leave everyone involved unhappy, two sources briefed on those discussions said.

The sources also said that these latest meetings are preliminary. In December, the PTPA and Tennis Australia announced they had reached an as-yet-undisclosed settlement.

Any deal with the remaining defendants — the ATP and WTA Tours, and the organizers of Wimbledon and the French and U.S. Opens, remains far off, and all of them have also filed renewed motions to dismiss the lawsuits on a variety of technical grounds.

These discussions are the latest chapter in a story that is about as long as tennis’ history as a professional sport. Players, the tours and the tournaments decide change is needed. They suggest how to change. They discuss how to change. They largely agree on what to change.

But change never really arrives.