- ATP chairman hopes hard-court tournament will be played at the beginning of the tennis season
- Investment in ATP Tour “not on the cards”
SURJ Sports Investment, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia state-backed Public Investment Fund (PIF), has won the rights to host a new Masters 1000 tournament on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour.
Saudi Arabia becomes the tenth host of a ATP Masters 1000 tournament, and the first from the Middle East. The tournament will begin as early as 2028, and is the first expansion of the Masters 1000 category in the tour’s 35-year history.
Speaking at a media roundtable attended by SportsPro, ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi said he was hopeful the tournament could be scheduled at the start of the season and its creation was the result of a “very democratic process” with “unanimous approval” granted by the ATP board, which consists of four player representatives and four tournament representatives.
SURJ, as the event’s licence holder, will control sponsorship and ticketing operations. However chief executive Danny Townsend declined to comment on the financial terms of the deal, stating only “the value of these licences has gone up, which is a direct reflection on the popularity of tennis”.
Additionally, like other Masters 1000 event owners, SURJ will become a shareholder in ATP Media, the tour’s global broadcast rights and production arm.
“SURJ will become a shareholder of ATP Media,” Gaudenzi said. “All of the rights will be pulled and centralised together with the other Masters and the other ATP tournaments – hopefully in the future within Tennis Ventures, the merger of the commercial entities between the WTA and the ATP that we are working on.”
SURJ has made several investments this year, acquiring stakes in the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) and forming a joint venture with soccer’s Kings League. It has also invested US$1 billion in sports media company DAZNwith the deal including the creation of the DAZN Middle East and North Africa (MENA) joint venture.
Townsend however noted that its investment in DAZN would not automatically result in the new Saudi-based Masters 1000 event being broadcast by the streaming platform.
“Our investment in DAZN doesn’t mean that every one of our IP lands there,” Townsend said. “I would encourage them to go after tennis rights and deal with my colleagues here at the ATP and WTA and to pay for those rights, because I think they’re genuinely important rights in the sporting landscape. So they’ll have their chance, just like everyone else.”
When asked by SportsPro on whether SURJ would consider making an investment in the ATP Tour, Townsend answered: “I certainly wouldn’t say it’s on the cards at this moment in time.
