On Friday afternoon the draw was held for the official second edition of the ATP Cup. The tournament is very similar to Davis Cup as in countries are placed in a group and play a tournament style that concludes with knockout stages.
The major difference is that players get individual prize money and ATP ranking points depending how far they go in the tournament. Last year Serbia captured the title beating Spain.
This is how it will go down, 11 countries got in based on the ranking of their number one singles player while Australia as the host nation got a wild card into the tournament. Japan received entry this year based on Kei Nishikori protected ranking.
“Last year the first ATP Cup made such a big impression on me,” former world No.1 Jim Courier said during the draw ceremony via video call. “Everyone who basically was able to see it remembers seeing the crowds, how energetic they were.
“It’s really the first time I’ve seen the Serbian crowds be so far behind Novak for him to feel like he had a home court advantage. It was spectacular.
“I’m looking forward to another version of it.”
Here are the how the groups turned out.
Group A
Group A which we probably call the group of death has Serbia, Germany, and Canada. We will for sure see some great matches from this group pitting Novak Djokovic against the likes of Denis Shapovalov and Alexander Zverev. This by far will be the toughest group to move on from and whoever does is pretty much a favourite to win it all.
Group B
Group B is also no easy task for 2020 runners-up Spain who will face Greece and Australia. Rafael Nadal will get to face off with Stefano Tsitsipas and most likely Alex De Minaur who almost carried his team to the semi-finals last year.
Group C
Group C features Austria, Italy, and France. Dominic Thiem is likely to square off against Matteo Berrettini and Gael Monfils in another difficult group.
Group D
Finally in Group D we have Russia, Argentina and Japan. Russia is always dangerous with Andrey Rublev while Argentina will counter with Diego Schwartzman and Kei Nishikori would should make for some very interesting matches.
As mentioned four groups of three with only one country moving on from each group to meet in the quarter-finals. The action begins on February 1st in Melbourne and the tournament will only last five days. Last year the tournament was hosted by three different cities in Brisbane, Perth and Sydney.
