ATP World Tour Finals

flamingowings · All-time great

RE: ATP World Tour Finals

JonH · All-time great

I wonder how or if the djoko and kermode fued will impact the selection of the next venue, which is due imminently. I'm not sure who's involved in that but it kermode has less influence now or none effectively then I suspect we can wave goodbye to London staying as host- djoko was very outspoken on that. Seems more likely Turin will end up with this. Interesting how djoko and fognini are playing together in iw?!

JonH · All-time great

Has anyone heard anything re the venue selection, they said end of March when they announced the shortlist?!

JonH · All-time great

So looks like O2 will lose finals and Manchester wont win either, Turin looking likely ahead of Tokyo.

www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2019/04/16/british-tennis-suffers-blow-atp-finals-2020-likely-last-staged/

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Not a surprise, seemed inevitable with all the Djokovic-Kermode stuff. Would much prefer Turin got it than Tokyo.

I've never been but will try and get this year or next before it goes.

JonH · All-time great

Yes, on the cards really and to be frank I think it is starting to get tired in London. Italy has done a good job with the presentation of Next Gen so probably deserve this chance, will be interesting to see how it goes.

I had hoped that GB might be able to get an ATP Tour event indoors as a recompense , if Italy has the Tour Finals, I wonder if they will look to take the Next Gen event on the road in a couple of years time also, suspect that might be more likely to head to Tokyo or some such as a sweetener for losing out here.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Yeah, I do actually think it has run its course. Don't get me wrong, the more events in the UK the better, especially if they are significant and as the journo says, it reminds the casual fan that there is tennis happening outside of the grass season and particularly Wimbledon, but the whole 'wanted man' stuff was getting a bit stale to me, plus while ticket sales were impressive, and a reason to keep them here, there were often a fair few empty seats in the afternoon session last year - whether they had been bought and people weren't too fussed about Anderson-Nishikori + a doubles match where they didn't know the players and decided not to go (which would still count as a sale), it didn't really feel like the hottest ticket in town anymore, especially when 2 or 3 players on average always seemed to pull out.

I'm still quite surprised they didn't end up in Tokyo (although I guess they still might if it's not officially Turin) because the main sponsors Nitto are Japanese and Nishikori is obviously a genuine contender to feature, plus on the women's side, pretty much every new big event (including the WTA Finals) is heading to that region and it certainly seems where the money currently is. If it is Turin then at least it will be a similar time zone and we will still get evening matches - you certainly won't get a match in Japan/China starting at 7/8pm our time.

It would be great (well not great but you know what I mean) if they did a straight swap and we got the Nxt Gen event and Italy got the Finals, but yeah, I could see the Nxt Gen event heading to Asia.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Stuart Fraser saying the ATP Finals are now confirmed for Turin. At least it should be in the same time zone and 12 years at the O2 was a long time - if crowds were starting to fall a bit, I suspect the next 2 years will see a rise again with people who haven't been wanting to go before they leave. Much better than Asia IMO.

the addict · Tennis legend

Here is the official Nitto announcement

www.nittoatpfinals.com/en/news-and-media/tennis/turin-host-atp-finals-from-2021-to-2025

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

It'll be interesting to see how they schedule it as well. Maybe the first year when it's a novelty for the Italians, but I'd be quite surprised if they kept the current format of 2 sessions a day with one singles and one doubles match per session. I'd prefer if they did it like the WTA Finals and have both singles matches together, although the dubs would inevitably become a bit of an afterthought. I'm not sure if Italy have any doubles representation or the potential to have, but I guess from our perspective, the last 4 or 5 years Jamie was always involved so there'd always be either direct or indirect interest.

Should be interesting and a fresh approach may be what's needed and the final 2 years here should also get more general coverage, especially next year.

JonH · All-time great

Interesting that they have gone for 5 years, one of the factors seemed to be moving it around, I would have expected 3 years max, therefore - but I guess 5 years gives them chance to recoup early costs and grow the audience.

Venue is Pala Alpitour, biggest in Italy according to Fraser, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pala_Alpitour - crowd depends on config but it looks like between 12-16k fans, slightly smaller than London or Manchester offered.

In terms of schedule and doubles - Italy currently have only Fognini and Braccialli ranked top 100 doubles so not currently pushing to have any contenders, that could change in 2 1/2 years. In singles, Fognini is currently 7th in the Race and most likely candidate to qualify but not sure if he will be still at top in 2 years.

They will surely want to change the format slightly I would guess. The 2 sessions a day worked well in terms of fan numbers and the structure of 1 singles and doubles suited - I am not sure they will want to reduce the number of fans attending too much, it would be v negative first year if it drops significantly, and so 2 sessions a day seems likely to stay. And over an 8 day event, the only structure that works with realistically is the current one...

Prizemoney will be $14.5m USD in 2021 as well, I guess that sort of money talks (isnt it around $10m currently?). That is $14.5m across 24 players , most to singles players, and dwarfs say a golf major where the money is just over $10m between 130 players or so...

-- Edited by JonH on Wednesday 24th of April 2019 09:43:31 AM

JonH · All-time great

Being speculated that laver cup could come to London in 2021, from what I've seen of it , it's been two v exciting events , maybe a bit contrived prestige wise but I'd certainly go and watch it if it was here

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

JonH wrote:
Interesting that they have gone for 5 years, one of the factors seemed to be moving it around, I would have expected 3 years max, therefore - but I guess 5 years gives them chance to recoup early costs and grow the audience.

Venue is Pala Alpitour, biggest in Italy according to Fraser, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pala_Alpitour - crowd depends on config but it looks like between 12-16k fans, slightly smaller than London or Manchester offered.

In terms of schedule and doubles - Italy currently have only Fognini and Braccialli ranked top 100 doubles so not currently pushing to have any contenders, that could change in 2 1/2 years. In singles, Fognini is currently 7th in the Race and most likely candidate to qualify but not sure if he will be still at top in 2 years.

They will surely want to change the format slightly I would guess. The 2 sessions a day worked well in terms of fan numbers and the structure of 1 singles and doubles suited - I am not sure they will want to reduce the number of fans attending too much, it would be v negative first year if it drops significantly, and so 2 sessions a day seems likely to stay. And over an 8 day event, the only structure that works with realistically is the current one...

Prizemoney will be $14.5m USD in 2021 as well, I guess that sort of money talks (isnt it around $10m currently?). That is $14.5m across 24 players , most to singles players, and dwarfs say a golf major where the money is just over $10m between 130 players or so...

-- Edited by JonH on Wednesday 24th of April 2019 09:43:31 AM

Yeah, 14m is also what the women are going to be getting in Shenzhen this year and London was definitely less because Djok was annoyed about it, 10m does ring a bell.