World Team Cup scrapped from ATP tour

 

Originally published on: 13/12/10 17:17

The World Team Cup in Dusseldorf has been scrapped from the 2011 ATP tour calendar after organisers failed to secure a sponsor after ARAG withdrew their support.

“We could not find a main sponsor,” said tournament director Dietloff von Arnim. “This is why with a heavy heart we decided not to stage the tournament. The financial hole and the risk linked to it were too great.”

The clay court event – which pitted national teams against each other over one week – has been around since its first staging at the Rochus club in 1978 and was seen as good preparation for Roland Garros.

The likes of Pete Sampras, John McEnroe and Boris Becker all played in the event for their countries, but it has failed to lure the top players in recent years, with Tomas Berdych the highest ranked player in last year’s competition.

“We are all very sad,” said Horst Klosterkemper, the tournament chairman who set it up more than three decades ago. “But it is a fact that a club alone cannot organise a tournament of that magnitude.”

The cancellation is another blow to German tennis after the ATP Hamburg tournament lost its Masters Series status two years ago and the Berlin event on the WTA tour was scrapped last year.

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