PULA, Croatia: Top 12 Group have partnered with ATP and IMG to launch a new series of tennis events as part of the ATP Champions Tour.
The Legends Team Cup – ATP Champions Tour will pit two teams of tennis legends against each other across three competitive three-day tournaments, with the first event set to take place in Pula, Croatia from 1-4 August.
Two iconic tennis superstars, 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 first location for the Legends Team Cup – ATP Champions Tour is Pula – Istria, Croatia, at the 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 1st July.
Marten Hedlund, president and CEO of Top 12 Group and founder of the Legends Team Cup – ATP Champions Tour, said: “Legends Team Cup – ATP Champions Tour is an opportunity for the players who still have the hunger and the drive to keep playing at the very top of their game. Our aim is to create a new exciting series of competition, by attracting players and audience that are truly passionate about tennis. Iconic players playing in spectacular iconic venues is a thrilling concept.”
Ross Hutchins, ATP chief tour officer, said: “The ATP Champions Tour plays an important role in celebrating our sport’s greatest icons at events all around the world. We’re delighted to welcome the Legends Team Cup onto the calendar this season and for fans to experience Champions Tour tennis in an exciting new format.”
Nikhil Waugh, Tennis Event director at IMG, the company that operates the ATP Champions Tour, added: “The Legends Team Cup and its unique team format with Ivan Lendl and Pat Cash, two greats of the game, as captains promises to inject the ATP Champions Tour with renewed life and we are excited to work together to develop this series. The standard of tennis and competitive drive of the players on the ATP Champions Tour will be a great asset to the Legends Team Cup and we can’t wait to see the action unfold.”
