Five Cities in Line to Host World Tour Finals

The ATP World Tour Finals will be hosted by one of Manchester, Singapore, Tokyo and Turin apart from the current city London from 2020 onward.

London is the current host of the ATP Finals but their contract expires after the 2020 edition of the tournament.

And while the O2 Arena in London, which has been the ATP Finals host for 10 years already, has said they would like to continue hosting the tournament, these four other cities have been shortlisted from a list of more than 40 others which had expressed interest in the same.

ATP executive chairman and president Chris Kermode is obviously a happy man. He acknowledged the amount of interest that the tournament hosting has received from around the world, and said it was indicative of the “rich heritage of this unique tournament” apart from how successful the event has been since it was shifted to the current venue in 2009.

Revealing how the bidding has so far gone, Kermode said:

“It has been a highly competitive process, and the candidate cities on the shortlist deserve huge credit for the passion and creative vision they have shown in their respective plans to continue the growth of our showpiece event.”

Kermode also praised the current hosts London, which he said had set a benchmark that will be tough to emulate.

“There’s no question that London has set a very high benchmark and, with the final shortlist announced today, we believe we will be well-placed to determine the next exciting chapter of a tournament that has come to represent the absolute pinnacle in men’s professional tennis.”

The ATP Finals was first played in 1970, under the title of Masters Grand Prix before it changed to the ATP Tour World Championships in 1990 and Tennis Masters Cup in 2000. In its first avatar, New York City, which also hosts the US Open,  had hosted the tournament between 1977 and 1989 after six different cities were hosts of the first six editions.

Frankfurt, Hanover, Lisbon, Sydney, Shanghai and Houston are the other cities which have hosted this tournament in the past.