The ATP Tour on Wednesday announced changes to its future calendars, starting the year after next (2025).
Events in Dallas, Doha, and Munich will be upgraded from 250 status to 500. Each of those three tournaments will offer approximately $2.8 million in prize money while contributing to a growing ATP 500 Bonus Pool. In total, that trio of upgrades is expected to deliver $51.7 million in additional player compensation from 2025 through 2029. This is all part of the ATP’s ATP’s “OneVision” strategy to enhance the calendar and overall product.
“OneVision is all about raising the bar for tennis, and unlocking new investment in the game,” Andrea Gaudenzi, chairman of the ATP, stated. “We’re thrilled to have our Dallas, Doha and Munich events step up to ATP 500 status–delivering improved standards for players and most importantly an enhanced product for our fans.”
In a coinciding move, 250 tournaments in Atlanta, Lyon, and Newport are coming to an end following the 2024 season.
There will now be 16 500 events starting in 2025: Dallas, Doha, Munich, Acapulco, Barcelona, Basel, Beijing, Dubai, Halle, Hamburg, London, Rio de Janeiro, Rotterdam, Tokyo, Vienna, and Washington, D.C.
For Atlanta, the end comes as no huge shock. There have been rumors of the tournament’s demise ever since Truist (formerly BB&T) ended its title sponsorship following the 2021 event. It was simply the “Atlanta Open” in both 2022 and 2023.
Why Coca-Cola and/or Delta–two Atlanta-based behemoths–have never stepped up to offer sponsorship is a question that has gone unanswered. Perhaps one of those companies could have not only saved the event but even helped upgrade it to 500 status of its own.
Instead, that distinction goes to Atlanta’s sister tournament, Dallas–which is also owned by GF Sports and Entertainment.
Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.