The World Team Cup was the international men's team championship of the

Association of Tennis Professionals The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, a ...

(ATP). The inaugural edition of the tournament was contested in 1975 in Kingston,

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

and was called the Nations Cup. No tournament was held in 1976 and 1977. From 1978 through 2012 the tournament was held annually in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It was generally considered to be second most prestigious men's team competition in

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

after the Davis Cup. Every year, the eight nations whose top two male players have achieved the highest combined placings in the men's world rankings at the end of the previous year were invited to compete for the cup. The competition was played on clay courts in

. The event was generally regarded as the sports highlight of the social scene in the Düsseldorf area. It attracted around 75,000 visitors every year and was televised to over 160 countries. From 1978 to 1981 the tournament was held under the name "Ambre Solaire Nations Cup", from 1982 until 1986 it was named "Ambre Solaire World Team Cup", from 1987–1999 "Peugeot World Team Cup" and from 2000 the event's main sponsor until 2010 was the ARAG Insurance Group, and its sponsored name was the "ARAG World Team Cup". After ARAG discontinued sponsorship for the event and organizers failed to find a new sponsor, the 2011 edition of the tournament was cancelled. However, a new sponsor — Power Horse — was found in January 2011 and the 2011 edition took place between May 15–21 under the name "Power Horse World Team Cup". In October 2012 it was announced that the World Team Cup event would be discontinued and replaced by the Power Horse Cup, an ATP 250 tournament in Düsseldorf. In September 2017 it was announced that there were plans to revive the tournament: the ATP had proposed a 24 team tournament to be played over 10 days at venues around Australia in January, which would offer 1000 ranking points to any player who won all their matches. In January 2018 it was mooted to start in 2019 or 2020 with the backing from Tennis Australia, In the end, the ATP decided to launch the competition as the

ATP Cup The ATP Cup was an international outdoor hard court men's tennis team tournament, which ran from 2020 to 2022.The tournament was played across one or three Australian cities over ten days in the lead up to the Australian Open, and featured team ...

, a separate tournament to the World Team Cup, in 2020. On 7 August 2022, as a result of all three editions being very poorly attended and riddled with logistical issues, along with heavy financial losses and disdain for the event from fans, players - particularly women's players - and officials, Tennis Australia announced that the ATP Cup would be shut down, to be replaced by a mixed-gender United Cup from 2023.

Past finals

Titles by country

Point distribution

Fair Play Trophy

Presented since 1989, the Fair Play Trophy was awarded by an international jury of tennis journalists and the captains of the competing nations.

References

External links