ATP confirms they’re ‘committed’ to bringing Masters 1000 event in Saudi Arabia from 2028
Currently, nine ATP Masters 1000 events are held in a year, one of which is a non-mandatory tournament (the Monte Carlo Masters).
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Jannik Sinner receiving year-end No.1 rankings trophy (Image via X/Tennis Tracker)
Departing ATP CEO Massimo Calvelli said the organization is working toward bringing a Masters 1000 to Saudi Arabia “potentially” from 2028. Calvelli last week visited Riyadh to discuss with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).
The first ATP event held in the kingdom was the Next Gen ATP Finals in 2023, which Jeddah hosted and will continue to host until 2027. PIF has also become the official naming partner of the ATP as well as the WTA rankings. Last year, for the first time in the history of Women’s tennis, the WTA Finals was held in Saudi Arabia (Riyadh).
Since the first time that I visited Saudi Arabia, it was, I want to say, two-and-a-half years ago, to today, there are 50,000 kids that are playing tennis in schools in Saudi, which is something that we are very proud of.
Massimo Calvelli said at the Sport Investment Forum in Riyadh (H/T: The National)
Calvelli, who resigned from his post as CEO and will leave the ATP in June this year, said tennis is booming and both the ATP and WTA are doing well if the commercial value is considered. He advocated for the merging of the ATP and WTA, as currently there are seven different governing bodies in tennis (ATP, WTA, ITF, and the four Grand Slam events).
So we’re very committed to the opportunity, and we think if we’re going to bring a top-tier event, a Masters 1000 event, the outlook is potentially from 2028. By the time we get there, in terms of investments in infrastructure and the demand that we will have created together, working with the different stakeholders here, like PIF or the Saudi Tennis Federation, certainly, there is going to be an incredible opportunity.
Massimo Calvelli added
Calvelli thinks the merging of both the WTA and the ATP will help grow their businesses and this could also double the earnings by 2030. The four Grand Slam events and the ITF have different financial processes and Calvelli, who is set to join American private investment firm RedBird Capital that owns the soccer Serie A club AC Milan, said all the stakeholders need to work for a model where there’s a better distribution.
Saudi Arabia hosted three tennis events in 2024
Last year, along with Next Gen Finals and the WTA Finals, Saudi Arabia also hosted an exhibition event- the Six Kings Slam, which offered $6 million to the winner, the most in the history of tennis (though it was an unofficial event). The participants were: Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Holger Rune, and Daniil Medvedev.
Sinner took home the hefty sum of $6 million, which is almost double the prize money a Grand Slam winner pockets. The other players received $1.5 million for their participation.
The decision to link tennis to the PIF has always received mixed reactions because of the country’s human rights issues. Former Grand Slam champions, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, even wrote a letter, criticizing WTA’s decision to bring the year-end championships to Saudi Arabia, saying the decision was “a significant step backward, to the detriment not just of women’s sport, but women.”
At present, there are nine ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, the first of which starts at Indian Wells and ends at the Paris Masters. Only one among the nine is not a mandatory event (the recently concluded Monte Carlo Masters).
On the WTA tour, however, 10 events of the 1000 category are held in a year, all of which are mandatory tournaments. The tennis world currently is focusing on the ATP 500 (Barcelona Open, BMW Open) and WTA 500 (Stuttgart Open) events on the European clay swing.
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