ATP CUP – WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY AND WHO

WHAT IS THE ATP CUP?

The ATP Cup is a brand new event for 2020. It’s another team tournament, not universally loved as a format, but always interesting. The tournament carries 750 ranking points and a prize pool of US $15 million, making it an important event.

WHERE WILL IT BE HELD?

It will be held in three Australian cities: Perth, Brisbane and Sydney. The first six days will be the group stages and will be played across all 3 cities before the last 8 move to Sydney for the final 4 days.

WHEN IS THE TOURNAMENT?

The inaugural ATP Cup will take place from Friday 3rd January to Sunday 12th January 2020.

WHY HAS THIS TOURNAMENT BEEN INTRODUCED?

This tournament definitely has it’s critics. Like many team tournaments, we don’t get to see the best players in the world. Reilly Opelka has been widely backed for his comments on the inclusion of Moldova in the tournament. Their number one player is world number 46 Radu Albot and their second best player is not in the rankings at all.

And because Roger Federer pulled out, Switzerland no longer qualify.

I personally don’t agree with the tournament – I prefer the singles format and see no reason why the format needed to be changed from previous years.

I hope it’s an excellent tournament and I hope I’m proven wrong.

WHO WILL BE PLAYING?

Group A (Brisbane)

Chile: Cristian Garin, Nicolas Jarry, Alejandro Tabilo, Hans Podlipnik-Castillo, Marcelo Tomas Barrios Vera

France: Gael Monfils, Benoit Paire, Gilles Simon, Nicolas Mahut, Edouard Roger-Vasselin

Serbia: Novak Djokovic, Dusan Lajovic, Nikola Milojevic, Nikola Cacic, Viktor Troicki

South Africa: Kevin Anderson, Lloyd Harris, Ruan Roelofse, Raven Klaasen, Khololwam Montsi

Group B (Perth)

Georgia: Nikoloz Basilashvili, Aleksandre Metreveli, George Tsivadze, Aleksandre Bakshi, Zura Tkemeladze

Japan: Yoshihito Nishioka, Go Soeda, Ben McLachlan, Toshihide Matsui

Spain: Rafael Nadal, Roberto Bautista Agut, Pablo Carreno Busta, Albert Ramos-Vinolas, Feliciano Lopez

Uruguay: Pablo Cuevas, Martin Cuevas, Ariel Behar, Juan Martin Fumeaux, Franco Roncadelli

Group C (Sydney)

Belgium: David Goffin, Steve Darcis, Kimmer Coppejans, Joran Vliegen, Sander Gille

Bulgaria: Grigor Dimitrov, Dimitar Kuzmanov, Alexandar Lazarov, Alexander Donski, Adrian Andreev

Great Britain: Daniel Evans, Cameron Norrie, James Ward, Joe Salisbury, Jamie Murray

Moldova: Radu Albot, Alexander Cozbinov, Egor Matvievici, Dmitrii Baskov

Group D (Perth)

Italy: Fabio Fognini, Stefano Travaglia, Simone Bolelli, Paolo Lorenzi, Alessandro Giannessi

Norway: Casper Ruud, Viktor Durasovic, Lukas Hellum Lilleengen, Herman Hoeyeraal, Leyton Rivera

Russia: Daniil Medvedev, Karen Khachanov, Teymuraz Gabashvili, Ivan Nedelko, Konstantin Kravchuk

United States: John Isner, Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Rajeev Ram, Austin Krajicek

Group E (Sydney)

Argentina: Diego Schwartzman, Guido Pella, Juan Ignacio Londero, Maximo Gonzalez, Andres Molteni

Austria: Dominic Thiem, Dennis Novak, Sebastian Ofner, Oliver Marach, Jurgen Melzer

Croatia: Borna Coric, Marin Cilic, Viktor Galovic, Ivan Dodig, Nikola Mektic

Poland: Hubert Hurkacz, Kamil Majchrzak, Kacper Zuk, Lukasz Kubot, Wojciech Marek

Group F (Brisbane)

Australia: Alex De Minaur, Nick Kyrgios, John Millman, John Peers, Chris Guccione

Canada: Denis Shapovalov, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Steven Diez, Adil Shamasdin, Peter Polansky

Germany: Alexander Zverev, Jan-Lennard Struff, Mats Moraing, Kevin Krawietz, Andreas Mies

Greece: Stefanos Tsitsipas, Michail Pervolarakis, Markos Kalovelonis, Petros Tsitsipas, Alexandros Skorilas

The favourites going in will be Spain who won the most recent team event, the Davis Cup in 2019. Nadal has a passion playing for Spain and led them to a great victory. He will hope to do the same again.

Croatia will be led by Novak Djokovic, but this doubles play has lots of question marks, I don’t think they have the depth to take it down.

Russia will be in with a shout led by Khachanov and Medvedev and I expect them to play well.

I also expect strong showings from Canada, Germany and Australia.