ATP 'committed' to bringing Masters 1000 event to Saudi Arabia 'potentially from 2028'

Departing CEO Massimo Calvelli in discussion with PIF regarding 'incredible opportunity' to add to kingdom's growing portfolio

Outgoing ATP CEO Massimo Calvelli said the Saudi Tennis Federation has done an 'amazing job' at promoting tennis in schools in the country. AFP

Departing ATP chief executive Massimo Calvelli has described the possibility of bringing a Masters 1000 tournament to Saudi Arabia as an “incredible opportunity”, adding the event would likely make its debut in 2028.

At the Sport Investment Forum in Riyadh last week, Calvelli revealed he was in the kingdom to discuss the matter with the PIF, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which already has strong ties with the ATP and WTA, including sponsorship of the rankings of each tour.

The ATP made its first official venture into Saudi Arabia by awarding Jeddah the hosting rights of the Next Gen Finals from 2023 to 2027.

A multi-year strategic partnership between the ATP and PIF was announced in February 2024, which saw the PIF become the official naming partner of the ATP rankings, and a sponsor of some of the tour’s biggest events, including Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Beijing and the ATP Finals.

The women’s tour followed suit three months later and announced its own deal with the PIF, which became the first naming partner of the WTA rankings. The news came on the heels of the WTA’s decision to host the year-end championships in Riyadh from 2024 to 2026.

Calvelli said talks between the ATP and the PIF began in earnest in the summer of 2022 and the tour executives were “ultimately sold on a vision”.

“The vision of bringing tennis here for the long term. The vision of making tennis part of the broader ecosystem in Saudi Arabia, from a social standpoint, from an economic standpoint, and all the many different dimensions that come with it. So we completely changed our approach in regard to Saudi Arabia,” explained Calvelli.

The Italian said discussions about staging a Masters 1000 tournament in Saudi Arabia “are going very, very well” and that the tour is “excited” about the opportunity.

“Since the first time that I visited Saudi Arabia, it was, I want to say, two-and-a-half years ago, to today, there are 50,000 kids that are playing tennis in schools in Saudi, which is something that we are very proud of,” said Calvelli.

“The Saudi Tennis Federation has done an amazing job at promoting and facilitating that. On the back, obviously, of the fact that we're taking tennis tournaments here, and we have a partnership with PIF. But we think that the ground is fertile and there is a very strong appetite here.

“So we're very committed to the opportunity, and we think if we're going to bring a top-tier event, a Masters 1000 event, the outlook is potentially from 2028. By the time we get there, in terms of investments in infrastructure and the demand that we will have created together, working with the different stakeholders here, like PIF or the Saudi Tennis Federation, certainly there is going to be an incredible opportunity.

“Even more so if we can couple that with bringing the women's side, our women counterparts as well, right? That's the other side of the equation.”

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  Coco Gauff celebrates after beating Qinwen Zheng to win the WTA Finals at King Saud University Indoor Arena in Riyadh, on November 9, 2024. Reuters

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  United States' Coco Gauff after beating Zheng Qinwen of China 3-6, 6-4, 7-6. AFP

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  Coco Gauff holds the Billie Jean King Trophy after her three-set victory over Qinwen Zheng. Getty Images

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  Qinwen Zheng after losing to Coco Gauff. Reuters

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  Coco Gauff after winning match point to claim her first WTA Finals crown at the age of 20 and become the youngest player to win the title since Maria Sharapova in 2004. Reuters

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  Coco Gauff celebrates after beating Qinwen Zheng after fighting back from 2-0 and 5-3 down in the deciding set. Reuters

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  Qinwen Zheng had won a tour-leading 31 matches since Wimbledon going into the final. Getty Images

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  Coco Gauff became the youngest WTA Finals finalist, at the age of 20, since Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Getty Images

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  Seventh seed Qinwen Zheng defeated Elena Rybakina and Jasmine Paolini in the group stage, also losing to Aryna Sabalenka, before battling past Barbora Krejcikova 6-3, 7-5 in the semi-finals. Reuters

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  Coco Gauff beat the No 1 and No 2 in the world rankings - Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek - on her way to the title in Riyadh. AP

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  Zheng Qinwen had won six career titles heading into the match, including claiming Olympic gold at the Paris Games this summer. AFP

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  Coco Gauff celebrates after winning a point against Zheng Qinwen. AFP

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  Third seed Coco Gauff had won nine WTA Tour titles, and three this season, going into the match. Reuters

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  Coco Gauff and Qinwen Zheng before the final in Riyadh. The pair had only faced each other once before, when Gauff won 7-6, 6-1 in the Italian Open quarter-finals in Rome earlier this year. AP

Calvelli has resigned from his post as CEO and will exit the ATP at the end of June to join American private investment firm RedBird Capital as operating partner.

According to a Bloomberg report, RedBird Capital, which bought AC Milan in 2022 and owns a minority stake in Liverpool Football Club via its investment in the Fenway Sports Group, is in the process of acquiring the Madrid Open and the Miami Open for over $1 billion as part of a consortium led by Ari Emanuel, the co-founder and former CEO of Endeavor.

In Riyadh, Calvelli spoke about the current financial state of tennis and how important it will be to merge the commercial arms of the ATP and WTA to shop the rights of both tours together.

“I would say tennis right now is extremely relevant. Tennis is booming. If you look at all the metrics, everything that we are doing is fantastic. There is incredible following. The commercial value in terms of sponsorship are growing, so we're in a very good place. But if you look at where the opportunity is for the future, it's reducing fragmentation,” said Calvelli.

Tennis has seven different governing bodies running the sport, the ATP, the WTA, the International Tennis Federation (ITF), and the four grand slams.

“The first step in reducing that fragmentation would be to bring the two associations together, the men's and the women's,” he added.

“Monetisation of the rights of the league should happen in an integrated fashion. It should be one company that is responsible for maximising the value of the rights of both associations. So not only would it reduce significantly some of the fragmentation that we face now, but it would also leverage the unique selling point of tennis, which is putting men and women on the same stage equally, truly equally. Which is an amazing place to be, but we don't do enough of a good job at capitalising on that unique selling point. So by doing that, certainly that would be better.”

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  Jannik Sinner of Italy celebrates his victory over USA's Taylor Fritz in the ATP Finals title match in Turin, Italy, on Sunday, November 17, 2024. EPA

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  Jannik Sinner capped a successful season with the ATP Finals title in Turin. EPA

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  USA's Taylor Fritz hits a return to Jannik Sinner in Turin. AFP

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  Jannik Sinner lifted the ATP Finals title in front of home fans in Turin. EPA

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  Taylor Fritz lost in straight sets to Jannik Sinner in the ATP Finals title match. EPA

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  Jannik Sinner concluded a near perfect season with the ATP Finals crown. EPA

Calvelli cited the two deals in place between the PIF and the ATP and the WTA as a prime example of a wasted opportunity, given how each tour separately negotiated its own partnership with the Saudi fund.

“It was two separate processes with complications and challenges that were unnecessary,” he added.

“Ultimately now they sponsor both the men's ranking and the women's ranking, and it gives the ability to tell incredible stories across both dimensions. But it was a little bit of a process to get there.

“It's also in the interest of the fans, the ability to tell joint stories across men and women. That's what the world is asking, that's what the fans are asking. So it's a big opportunity for the sport.”

Calvelli believes that merging the tours’ commercial interests will help grow their business exponentially, and he is projecting earnings will more than double in size by 2030.

“We're nonprofit, but we're not nonprofit in the sense that we use whatever we make – profits – for charitable efforts, in the sense that we have to give it back to the members. So everything that we make is distributed out,” said Calvelli.

“When you look at 2025, we're projecting to distribute at the ATP $290 million to our members equally. The WTA is looking at distributing approximately $150 million. So in 2025, you can say that these two entities together will distribute $440 million in profit.

“We've been spending a lot of time working together and modelling what a combined future, a joint future, would look like. And the estimate is that we will probably be at $985 million in distributions in 2030. So just over five years, you're more than doubling the size of the business.”

The ITF and the four grand slams each adopt different financial and distribution models, but Calvelli is convinced there could be a way to narrow the gap between all stakeholders.

“For the future we can define a model where there is better alignment of the distribution. It's something that we believe strongly in and we've been advocating for that. And ultimately it will help the entire ecosystem in growing and thriving,” he concluded.