The senior circuit will launch a team tour this summer.
The ATP, IMG and Top 12 Group are partnering to launch a new series of tennis team events as part of the ATP Champions Tour.
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The Legends Team Cup – ATP Champions Tour will pit two teams of tennis legends against each other across three action-packed, competitive three-day tournaments, with the first event set to take place in Pula, Croatia from August 1-4th.
Eight-time Grand Slam winner Ivan Lendl and Wimbledon champion Pat Cash have been appointed as captains of the two seven-player teams that will face off at the three tournaments hosted in exclusive destinations across the world.
Alongside the non-playing captains, the first players to be announced for the series are two-time doubles Grand Slam champion Radek Štěpanek, former World No. 2 Tommy Haas, and Wimbledon finalist Tomáš Berdych.
The Legends Team Cup – ATP Champions Tour will announce the additional players over the coming weeks, with a team draft set to take place during the UK’s famous grass-court season, at the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic’s ATP Champions Tour event at London’s Hurlingham Club. There, team captains Lendl and Cash will draft the full lineup of players into their respective teams, which they will go on to represent for the season. Locations of the second and third tournaments will then be revealed in the weeks leading up to the Pula event.
The Legends Team Cup - ATP Champions Tour will be played in spectacular venues at exclusive destinations for this one-of-a-kind series of events. The first location is Pula- Istria, Croatia, at the breathtaking Amphitheater, the second and grand finale sites will be revealed in the weeks leading up to the first event.
Each tournament day will consist of two singles and one doubles match, with the team with the most points at the end of the three days being crowned the winners. The teams will also play to become the series champions, which will be awarded at the end of the third tournament in November.
Željko Franulović, the Tournament Director for the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters for the past 17 years, will serve as Tournament Director for Legends Team Cup – ATP Champions Tour from July 1st.
Photo credit: Australian Open Facebook