Doubts over tennis season

A MEETING this week between the warring bodies trying to own the best teams event in men’s tennis has cast further uncertainty over the long-term future of Australia’s summer circuit.

An announcement by the ATP and Tennis Australia in London yesterday revealed a name change for their new annual men’s teams event in Australia in January 2020, but fleshed out few new details other than confirming three Australian cities would be involved. The 24-team event would now be known as the ATP Cup, not its working title, which was the ATP World Team Cup.

Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley yesterday did not say which three Australian cities would host 2020 ATP Cup. In July he told News Corp that Brisbane’s Queensland Tennis Centre would be one of the venues for the event, which would be played over 10 days and start on December 28, 2019.

But talks by Tennis Australia on financial support by the Queensland Government, which holds a contract for a men’s and women’s Brisbane International until 2021, have not been straightforward and are ongoing. Tennis Australia plans the Brisbane International in January to be the last played by men, with the women’s tournament to continue in January 2020.

In August the International Tennis Federation announced that the 2019 Davis Cup would culminate in an 18-nation finals format to be played in late November, making for a scheduling car-crash, even by the standards of tennis.

A meeting in London on Tuesday between representatives from the ATP and ITF was said to be positive towards an eventual merger for one teams event, but much negotiation would be needed.

Neither the ITF or ATP has wanted to yield ground about what both see as a lucrative new income stream, making a merged event by 2020 most unlikely. Several leading players, including Novak Djokovic, have criticised the likelihood of having two teams events six weeks apart.

Tennis Australia has a multi-year contract with the ATP to stage the ATP Cup.

Tiley said in July that Brisbane would be in the mix for an ATP Cup semi-final or final.

Sydney and Brisbane are certain to be two of the host cities if the two state governments support the ATP Cup.