The campaign to host the first ever ATP Masters tournament for players aged under-21 has intensified with the Italian Tennis Federation formally expressing their interest.
Last November ATP CEO Chris Kermode announced plans to host an end-of-year tournament for the younger players on the tour. The aim of the Masters event is to ‘promote and support’ the next generation of players. The event could also feature new ideas on the tour such as shorter-warm ups. The tournament will feature the eight highest ranked players in that age category.
It is understood that five unnamed cities have expressed interest in holding the tournament, which is planned to start in 2017. Italy has now come out publicly and declared their interest in the event. Angelo Binaghi, president of the Italian Tennis Federation, has told local media that he will be informed after Wimbledon if his country has been successful in their application.
“We want to host the new ATP Masters under 21 from 2017 in Turin or Milan,” Binaghi recently said.
“The ATP will implement a World Masters under 21 with the eight highest ranked young players in the world.”
“It will be played a week before the ATP Finals in London with a prize pool of one-and-a-half million dollars. We would like to host it in Turin or Milan. We believe it is the right time for a new tournament in Italy. There are other candidates and we will have an answer from the ATP after Wimbledon. “
Milan hasn’t hosted an ATP tournament since the 2005 Milan Open. One venue that could host the event is the 12,500 capacity Mediolanum Forum on the outskirts of the city. It already hosts the La Grande Sfida, an annual tennis exhibition tournament the features some of the best women tennis players in the world.
The ATP are yet to reveal the other cities that have expressed an interest in hosting the event. Currently there are five players ages under-21 in the top-100 (Nick Kyrgios, Kyle Edmund, Borna Coric, Alexander Zverev and Taylor Fritz).
