Newly crowned Cincinnati Open champion Novak Djokovic has once again come out in support of moving the ATP World Tour Finals to a new location in the near future.
The end-of-season finale takes place in November and features the eight best players on the men’s tour battling it out in a round robin competition. It has been hosted annually at the O2 Arena in London since 2009. Making it one of the longest periods where the event has been held in the same place since it was first played in 1970. Madison Square Gardens in New York held the event for 12 years between 1977-1989.
“I have had so much success in London. It’s a fantastic event. It’s an amazing venue for tennis. You feel like a rock star. You really do.” Said Djokovic, who is a five-time winner of the multi-million dollar tournament.
“Packed house, amazing sound, light effects. Everything is done in a right way. The final eight, every day you play a big match. So it’s a phenomenal week. It’s been proven to be a big success.”
Few can dispute London’s success in hosting the event. The 2017 tournament attracted a total attendance of 253,642 fans. Making it the ninth consecutive year The O2 has welcomed more than 250,000 visitors to the tennis tournament.
Whilst London has proven to be a hit in the world of tennis, Djokovic believes the even should be more around the world more regularly. In a bid to promote the sport to a wider audience. Earlier this month, the ATP announced the start of a bidding process to find the host of the ATP Finals after 2020. Interested cities have until November 3rd to submit their applications.
“I feel like this kind of concept of the tournament, the World Tour Finals, should travel more often.” Djokovic stated.
“It’s been there (in London) for almost ten years. Basically, it’s going to be there for more than ten years. And I just think that that’s too long, in my opinion, because this is one big tournament aside of the World Team Cup that is going to come up in a couple of years, but this is the biggest event ATP owns, and they should leverage that to promote tennis around the world.”
“I’m sure there are plenty of cities that want to have this event and host it. I just think that it would be such a great thing for tennis to have it in different places every, say, three years, three, four years.”
It is by no means certain that the event will leave the UK after 2020. ATP CEO Chris Kermode is a strong supporter of the event remaining in London. In a statement about the ongoing bidding process, Kermode said ‘The O2 has set a very high bar, and we expect that staying in London beyond 2020 will also be among the options for consideration as we go through this process.’
A final decision on the future host of the ATP World Tour Finals will be made in March.
