"The addition of a new Masters in an important region is something that we think is very important" - The reasons why ATP gave the green light for Saudi Masters

The Saudi Masters is set to start in 2028, with there still being questions thrown around about the event. It may not be a popular one with the fans but according to the ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi, this event will help tennis grow and continue the rise of the sport globally, despite the possible sacrifices it may lead to.

The focus for him and the ATP is to grow their prized possession Masters 1000 events. Currently, there are nine on the calendar with eight of them mandatory - only Monte-Carlo goes against this. With some of the events extending from one week to almost two, these specific tournaments are taking up more time on the calendar, something Gaudenzi believes the fans want to see.

“One of the elements of our strategy was to enhance the premium product and obviously to grow the [1000] category, because ultimately we do believe that fans want to see the best players playing in the top events, and that is the Grand Slams and the Masters and the Finals in our sport,” Gaudenzi said. "That's when all top players compete against each other. That's why the addition of a new Masters in an important region is something that we think is very important. They're also going to go through an incredible investment, they're going to raise the standards, they're going to raise the bar.”

With the extension of some of these Masters 1000 events added to the eight weeks taken up by Grand Slams, a lot of the tennis calendar is already filled up, with a plethora of 250 and 500 events squeezed within. While February seems like the most likely month, Gaudenzi refuses to confirm it. “That is definitely a preference and is our desire, but is also subject to the kind of limitation because that month is very crowded.”

This brings in another dilemma. While it would coincide with the 500 events in Dubai and Doha, there are still a number of tournaments that still may be overlooked for the grand competition in Riyadh. With the Golden swing in South and Latin America possibly under threat, sacrifices may possibly be made with the ATP's priority being firmly in the Masters 1000 events.

“Having a South American swing and Middle East swing is a goal but it's a challenge to execute,” he said. "We would welcome support from Tennis Australia obviously in that effort, for the sake of doing the best for the sport and we're working on that and I'm confident we can achieve it but we need time.”

With the Six King Slam being hosted in Riyadh along with the WTA Finals and Next Gen Finals, Saudi Arabia is collecting a number of big tennis events. With these events comes support from the local population, which is another reason why the ATP believe it is right to have a Masters 1000 event in Riyadh.

"The crowds that have been growing over the years," SURJ Sports CEO Danny Townsend said. "We've had more and more events I think demonstrates that as an investor we're going into a space where we have a lot of customers and fans that want to consume the sport and that was something that Six Kings Slam helped us validate.”

It seemed that the WTA were overlooked for a WTA 1000 event in Saudi Arabia, possibly due to the fact that they already have 1000 tournaments in UAE and Qatar in February. However, Townsend has not ruled out the possibility of such event occurring in the future, possibly alongside the ATP competition.

“We're very cognizant of serving both men's and women's games. Obviously having them on at the same time or at least in sequence in Saudi Arabia would be great,” Townsend said. "That wasn't possible at this point in time. So there are benefits from having both men and women playing at the same time, I know there's uplifts in ticket sales and a bunch of other commercial elements that we would certainly want to benefit from. But that's all in the future, we'd certainly never say never and explore it if it became an option.”