ATP Cup final bid won by Sydney

SYDNEY has won finals hosting rights for the inaugural 24team ATP Cup men’s tennis tournament next January.

But the staging of the $US15 million event from January 3-12 has raised more questions than answers, with the full 2020 summer program of tennis remaining unclear.

Sydney will also host part of the six-day group stage, along with Brisbane and a third Australian city to be announced in coming weeks, with Perth and Adelaide the frontrunners.

Comprising three eightteam groups, the ATP Cup will be the richest event in tennis history outside of the four annual grand slam tournaments. It will also offer players the chance to amass up to 750 rankings points, 30 points more than a 2018 grand slam semi-finalist.

“With more than 100 players from 24 nations, the ATP Cup will help us launch the global tennis season every January in Australia,” Tennis Australia chief Craig Tiley said.

Teams will qualify for 2020 based on the top-ranked player from each country after this year’s US Open in September, meaning Serbia – with Novak Djokovic as the world No.1 – are currently in line to be the first nation in.

“The ATP Cup will provide (the players) a great way to open their season – bringing together the world’s best for a major team event that complements the existing scheduling, provides highly-coveted ATP ranking points and clearly links to the Australian Open,” Tiley said.

“The first week of the season is when the players want to play and that’s why the tournament has their strong support.”

But the rest of the 2020 summer tennis calendar remains clouded, especially the future of the Hopman Cup, which appears doomed given it will unlikely be able to continue attracting the game’s best men’s players.

Brisbane will hold its ATP Cup group stage along with its existing women’s event.

With Sydney hosting both the group stages and the finals, the Sydney International women’s event is likely to run as a stand-alone tournament from January 13-19.

That means, with the 2020 Australian Open starting on January 20 next year, the women’s Sydney International will continue to be held the week before the year’s first major, set down for Melbourne Park.