Perth has been chosen as the third city to host the inaugural ATP Cup in January next year, signaling an end to the Hopman Cup international mixed team event that has been hosted by the Western Australian city for the past 31 years.
Sydney and Brisbane were announced as the other ATP Cup host cities in January, with Sydney hosting the knockout rounds and final.
“The ATP Cup will launch the global tennis season for the men,” Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley said at the Perth Arena yesterday.
“Four of the top 12 male players, and eight of the top 24, will play in Perth, with 24 teams competing across three cities — Perth, Brisbane and Sydney,” he said.
The ATP Cup is to have 750 ranking points and US$22 million in prize money up for grabs.
The event leaves no room in the revamped tennis calendar for the Hopman Cup, which is popular with players and has traditionally served as a warm-up for the Australian Open, the year’s first Grand Slam.
Paul McNamee, founder of the Hopman Cup and a four-time doubles Grand Slam champion, said that he did not know if the tournament would move to another city.
“My immediate feeling is sadness that it’s not going to be there anymore and concern about where the Hopman Cup may be in the future,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
NO HARD FEELINGS: Taiwan’s Lin Hsiang-ti and Indonesia’s Dhinda Amartya Pratiwi embraced after fighting to a tense and rare 30-29 final game in their Uber Cup match The Taiwanese men’s team on Wednesday fought back from the brink of elimination to defeat Denmark in Group C and advance to the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup, while the women’s team were to face South Korea after press time last night in the Uber Cup quarter-finals in Horsens, Denmark. In the first match, Taiwan’s top shuttler Chou Tien-chen faced a familiar opponent in world No. 3 Anders Antonsen. It was their 16th head-to-head matchup, with the Dane taking his fourth victory in a row against former world No. 2 Chou, winning 21-14, 13-21, 21-15 in 1 hour, 22 minutes. The
Marta Kostyuk’s maiden WTA 1000 title in Madrid came on Saturday thanks to her power, poise and a pair of unexpected lucky shorts. The world No. 23 beat eighth-ranked Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 7-5 in under 90 minutes to secure the most prestigious trophy of her career, her third professional singles title and second in less than a month after Rouen. Yet as the 23-year-old Ukrainian posed for photographs at the Caja Magica, it was not just the silverware that caught the eye. Held alongside her team and her two dogs, Kostyuk showed off a piece of black men’s underwear, prompting
Throwing more than US$5 billion at a divisive new tour and walking away after five seasons does not look like good business, but LIV Golf was not all bad news for Saudi Arabia. Oil-funded LIV, which poached top stars and sent golf’s establishment into a tailspin, helped push the conservative kingdom into global view — one of its key aims, experts said. The exit, confirmed on Thursday after weeks of speculation, does not signal a flight of Saudi money from sport, even after the Middle East war that sparked Iranian attacks around the Gulf, they said. “Saudi Arabia is not
Kite-surfing fabrics, car tires and shortened shoelaces helped Kenyan Sabastian Sawe and Adidas crack the two-hour marathon barrier. When Sawe on Sunday shattered one of athletics’ most elusive barriers in storming to victory at the London Marathon in 1 hour, 59 minutes, 30 seconds, it did not come from just physiology and grit, but from design choices drawn from far beyond the course. Sawe debuted Adidas’ lightest-ever racing shoe, the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3. “It starts with the mentality of the athlete, the coach, and the team behind the product, which is: What can we do better? What is the 1 percent
RSS