The ATP Cup was an international outdoor

hard court A hardcourt (or hard court) is a type of surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. It is typically made of rigid materials such as Asphalt concrete, asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resin ...

men's

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

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 The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

, and featured teams from 12, 16 or 24 countries. The event was the first ATP team competition since the ATP World Team Cup, which was held in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

from 1978 to 2012.

History

On 2 July 2018, ATP director Chris Kermode announced that he had plans to organise a men's team tennis tournament in response to the

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

changing their format six months earlier. The tournament at the time of the announcement had the name ''World Team Cup'', taking from the previous

World Team Cup The World Team Cup was the international men's team championship of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). The inaugural edition of the tournament was contested in 1975 in Kingston, Jamaica and was called the Nations Cup. No tourname ...

that took place in

from 1978 to 2012. On 15 November, the ATP and

Tennis Australia Tennis Australia Limited is the governing body for tennis in Australia. It is owned by Australian states and territories. The association organizes national and international tennis tournaments including the Australian Open, Australian Open Se ...

announced that the tournament would be known as the ''ATP Cup'', with 24 teams playing at three cities in preparation for the

. Those cities would later be revealed to be Sydney, Brisbane and Perth; the new event would also result in the cancellation of the similar mixed-gender

Hopman Cup The Hopman Cup is an international tennis tournament that plays mixed teams (one male and one female) on a country-by-country basis. It was first held in Perth, Western Australia each year from 1989 to 2019, played on indoor hardcourt, before b ...

tournament previously played in Perth (it would later be revived in 2023, relocated to

Nice, France Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million

). The tournament took place in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, and

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, with Sydney the hosts of the quarter-finals onwards. In 2021, the tournament was deferred several weeks, and moved to

Melbourne Park Melbourne Park is a sports venue in the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Since 1988, Australia's bicentenary, Melbourne Park has been home of the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament play ...

with 12 teams, due to the restrictions on domestic travel in Australia stemming from the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The 2022 event would be held in Sydney with 16 teams as these restrictions were ongoing. Following the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, the ITF barred Russia and Belarus from competing at the tournament. On 7 August 2022, amid an unsuccessful run hampered by low attendance and COVID-19-related issues, Tennis Australia announced that the ATP Cup would be replaced by a new mixed team event known as the United Cup beginning in 2023. The new event is a collaboration between Tennis Australia, the ATP, and the WTA, with players in the group stage also eligible to receive ATP and WTA rankings points.

Qualification

The teams that participated in the Cup were determined by the singles ranking of their best player. In the week after the US Open, 18 teams were announced, based on the best player singles ranking. For a country to qualify, it had to have at least three players with ATP ranking, and two of them with singles ranking. The next six teams were announced the week of the

ATP Finals The ATP Finals is the season-ending championship of the ATP Tour. It is the most significant tennis event in the men's annual calendar after the four majors, as it features the top eight singles players and top eight doubles teams based on their ...

. If the host did not qualify on the first deadline of September, it would be awarded a wild card, leaving only five spots for the November deadline.

Tournament

The format saw 24 teams divided into six groups of four teams each. The teams faced in ties composed of two singles matches and one doubles match. The match between the No. 2 of each team opened the tie, then the No.1 of each team, and the doubles match closing the tie. The doubles match would be played regardless whether the tie is decided or not. The winner from each group was joined by the two best second placed teams in the quarterfinals of the tournament for three knock-out rounds, culminating in the champion being crowned.

Prize money and trophies

In 2020 ABC Bullion, a

Pallion Pallion is a suburb and electoral ward in North West Sunderland, in Tyne and Wear, England. Most of the buildings in the area were built during the Victorian Era and consist of large terraced houses built for shipbuilders, but also smaller one- ...

company, was awarded the rights to make the Cup. The cups were produced by W.J. Sanders, a sister division within Pallion and took over 250 hours to produce.

Finals

Results by nation

References

External links

Official website
{{Tennis box Defunct tennis tournaments in Australia Hard court tennis tournaments ATP Tour Recurring sporting events established in 2020 2020 establishments in Oceania Sports competitions in Brisbane Sports competitions in Perth, Western Australia Sports competitions in Sydney Annual sporting events in Australia International men's tennis team competitions Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2022 2022 disestablishments in Oceania