Saudi Arabia will host a new Masters 1000 tournament, the ATP has announced.
The country’s influence in tennis has been growing, with Saudi Arabia staging the WTA Finals, the Next Gen ATP Finals and the lucrative Six Kings Slam exhibition, while sponsorship deals through its Public Investment Fund include the ATP and WTA rankings and the WTA’s maternity programme.
Now Saudi Arabia has achieved a major goal by being awarded a coveted spot on the Masters calendar – the top level of the men’s tour.
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In the first expansion of the category, Saudi Arabia will join the existing nine tournaments in Indian Wells, Miami, Monte-Carlo, Madrid, Rome, Canada, Cincinnati, Shanghai and Paris, with the aim being for the new event to run from 2028.
The exact point of the season where it will sit remains to be determined, but ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi pinpointed February, when there are already tournaments in Doha and Dubai, as a strong probability.
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The announcement comes at a time when there is intense scrutiny on the length of the calendar and demands on players, with 10th-ranked Holger Rune the latest to suffer a major injury.
Gaudenzi responded to player complaints, telling reporters: “It’s an extremely complex problem to solve, it’s almost you could argue the impossible problem to solve until there is someone who controls the full stack of the calendar.
“But it’s also a hard conversation vis-a-vis players to say, ‘we play too much’, when, ultimately, in reality they choose when and where to play. I do agree that the off-season is too short.”
Many of the complaints have been about the lengthening of the majority of Masters tournaments to two-week events.
Prize money will make tournament lucrative
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The ATP is looking at reducing the total number of tournaments, while the Saudi Arabia event will align with Monte-Carlo in lasting only one week and it will not be mandatory.
However, the prize money and other benefits on offer will almost certainly make it an event no eligible player would want to skip.
Gaudenzi said of the plans for the tournament: “They’re really amazing and I think they’re going to raise the bar in terms of both player experience and fan experience.”
The new event, which will be run by PIF company SURJ Sports Investments, will also join the other Masters tournaments as a shareholder in ATP Media, the Tour’s global broadcast and media arm.
Gaudenzi added: “This is a proud moment for us and the result of a journey that’s been years in the making.
“Saudi Arabia has shown a genuine commitment to tennis – not just at the professional level, but also in growing the game more broadly at all levels.”
Hall of Famers Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova have been among the critics of the sport’s ties to Saudi Arabia because of concerns about LGBTQ+ and women’s rights there.
Danny Townsend, the CEO of SURJ Sports Investment, a PIF company, would not rule out that the new tournament could eventually join the growing ranks of two-week, joint events with both women and men.
“There are benefits from having both men and women playing at the same time. I know there’s uplifts in ticket sales, a bunch of other commercial elements that we would certainly want to better benefit from,” Townsend said. “But that’s all in the future. We’d certainly never say never and explore if it became an option.”
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