By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, December 14, 2018
Two of the five cities bidding to host the prestigious year-end finale—current host London and Manchester—are in Great Britain.
Photo credit: Nitto ATP Finals Facebook
The Nitto ATP Finals may well remain on British soil.
The ATP announced the shortlist of candidates bidding to host the ATP Finals.
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Two of the five cities bidding to host the prestigious year-end finale—current host London and Manchester—are in Great Britain.
Singapore, Tokyo, and Turin round out the list of five finalists. The ATP announced all five cities will now be assessed to host the Tour’s crown jewel event from 2021 to 2025.
Alexander Zverev defeated Roger Federer and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in succession to capture the ATP Finals championship last month as the tournament celebrated its 10th anniversary at the O2 Arena.
The year-end finale is committed to another two years at the famed East London venue.
The tournament has been hugely successful in London, routinely selling out the 17,500-seat O2 and drawing a cast of celebrities for finals weekend.
Given a decade-long run of success, six-time champion Federer favors keeping the ATP Finals in London.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion says the fact fans embrace the event in London and logistics—London is an easy commute from Paris where players wrap the regular-season at the Paris Masters—makes the O2 the ideal destination.
"If the O2 is happy and the crowds keep flocking and coming to this venue and the Tour has a good deal, obviously why not stay here?" Federer told the media in London last month. "I don't see a reason to change, unless there is somebody else, a city that really wants it badly and is willing to come in and really support the Tour in a major for many years to come. It's been a winning formula here."
ATP Player Council president Djokovic disagrees with Federer and supports moving the event.
The Wimbledon champion asserts the ATP's premier event should be a traveling showcase staged in different cities to grow the game's global popularity rather than staying static at one site.
Then there's the fact London already hosts three tournaments—Queen's Club, Wimbledon and the ATP Finals—while some of the other finalist cities, including Manchester, do not own hosting rights for any ATP event.
"I just feel the concept of this event is it should be the one that travels," Djokovic said during an appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show last month. "Because this event is the biggest event the ATP owns. You have the best eight players in the world in a unique format of a round-robin system. So you at least see a certain player three times playing. I just feel this is a great leverage and opportunity to promote tennis all around the world.”
Prior to landing in London, the tournament had a four-year run of success in Singapore, which followed stints in Houston, Sydney and Lisbon.
The ATP Finals was initially created as a traveling tournament showcase. Stan Smith defeated Rod Laver in the inaugural final staged in Tokyo in 1970.
The tournament moved to a new host city every year during the first six years of its history with Paris, Barcelona, Boston, Melbourne, Stockholm and Houston, which first hosted from 1976 to 1982.
Then came a ground-breaking 13-year-run at Madison Square Garden in New York City that ended in 1989.
When its London run ends in 2020, the tournament will have occupied the O2 for 12 years.
“The ATP Finals have never stood still, remaining vibrant and relevant to fans, sponsors and media worldwide at every turn," ATP president Chris Kermode said. "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.”