A new tennis tournament will be added to the calendar as Saudi Arabia will host the new ATP Masters 1000 tournament, which is set to commence in 2028.
Addressing the media in a conference, ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi shared that the 56-player tournament will be one week in February, after the Australian Open.
“The exact position on the calendar is not yet decided.
“Obviously, February is one of the options. … It is a possibility but not decided yet.”
Gaudenzi also voiced his thoughts on Jack Draper’s suggestion, directed at tournament organisers, to change the annual calendar to accommodate the volume of injuries sustained in these events.
“It’s an extremely complex problem to solve, it’s almost you could argue the impossible problem to solve until there is someone who controls the full stack of the calendar.
“But it’s also a hard conversation vis-a-vis players to say, ‘we play too much’, when, ultimately, in reality they choose when and where to play. I do agree that the off-season is too short.”
This new ATP tournament will not be mandatory as the ATP is looking at options to reduce the total number of tournaments, but Gaudenzi also added that the prize money and benefits of the tournament will make tennis athletes not want to miss participating in this tournament as it will be worth their while.
“They’re really amazing and I think they’re going to raise the bar in terms of both player experience and fan experience.
“This is a proud moment for us and the result of a journey that’s been years in the making.
“Saudi Arabia has shown a genuine commitment to tennis – not just at the professional level, but also in growing the game more broadly at all levels.”
The new tournament will be run by the PIF company SURJ Sports Investments, which will also be joined by other Masters tournaments as a shareholder in ATP Media, the tour’s global broadcast and media arm.
The CEO of SURJ Sports Investments made a comment on socials on the new venture,” There are benefits from having both men and women playing at the same time. I know there’s uplifts in ticket sales, a bunch of other commercial elements that we would certainly want to better benefit from.
“But that’s all in the future. We’d certainly never say never and explore if it became an option.”
