When Should The New Saudi Arabia ATP Masters 1000 Event Be Held?

The ATP Tour has announced a new Masters 1000 tournament to be held in Saudi Arabia, to start as early as 2028. This has been anticipated for many months but now officially announced.

The biggest questions, that have not been answered (or determined) at this point is WHEN this event will be held and WHERE? The most logical slots in the tennis calendar would be to start the season, before the Australian Open, or after the Australian Open in February when the ATP Tour has a Middle Eastern swing in Doha and Dubai. Holding the event to start the year would interfere with the pre-Australian Open tour in Australia and would not be ideal for players who wish to immediately acclimatize to the Australian time zone and weather conditions just after the off-season. Holding the event in February would be a larger threat to the South American clay court swing that is also played at that time as the events in Doha and Dubai, but would be consistent hard-court transition to the other two hard court winter Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami.

The following is the official press release sent out by the ATP Tour.

ATP and SURJ Sports Investment, a PIF company, have today announced the launch of an all-new ATP Masters 1000 tournament, to be hosted in Saudi Arabia.

In what is the first-ever expansion of the tournament category, Saudi Arabia will become the tenth ATP Masters 1000 host, joining the existing nine tournaments in Indian Wells, Miami, Monte-Carlo, Madrid, Rome, Toronto/Montreal, Cincinnati, Shanghai and Paris. The Saudi tournament will begin as early as 2028.

The agreement marks a new era for global tennis and a major sports transformation in Saudi Arabia, bringing the most celebrated names in the sport to the country and delivering an unforgettable experience for fans.

The hosting of the tenth ATP Masters 1000 event underscores PIF’s long-term commitment to shaping the future of international tennis and global sport, and elevating Saudi Arabia’s position as a premier global sports and entertainment hub. The deal builds on the existing strategic partnership between PIF and ATP, which includes PIF as the official naming partner of the PIF ATP Rankings (as well as the WTA rankings), partnering on several key ATP Tour events and the recent launch of a next-generation technology platform, ATP Tennis IQ Powered by PIF. As part of the agreement, the new event will join ATP and the existing Masters 1000 tournaments as a shareholder in ATP Media, the Tour’s global broadcast and media arm.

The tournament will also focus on accelerating the growth of the game at all levels. A nationwide grassroots programme, developed in partnership with the Saudi Tennis Federation, will promote inclusivity, accessibility, and talent development, inspiring the next generation of Saudi athletes and champions and creating robust pathways for participation. This supports part of PIF’s broader ambition to grow sport at all levels, and to help drive the development of tennis across both the men’s and women’s game.

Andrea Gaudenzi, ATP Chairman, commented: “This is a proud moment for us and the result of a journey that’s been years in the making. Saudi Arabia has shown a genuine commitment to tennis – not just at the professional level, but also in growing the game more broadly at all levels. PIF’s ambition for the sport is clear, and we believe fans and players alike will be amazed by what’s coming. Strengthening our premium events is driving record growth and transformation across the Tour, and we’re grateful to our partners at PIF and SURJ for helping deliver that growth and sharing in this vision.”

Bander Bin Mogren, Chairman of SURJ Sports Investment, said: “Bringing an ATP Masters 1000 event to Saudi Arabia is a major step forward for tennis in the region and a reflection of our shared commitment with ATP to the growth of the game around the world. This announcement underscores Saudi Arabia’s emergence as a major destination for world-class sport and strengthens our ambition to support athletes, fans, and the wider tennis community for years to come. We are proud to be leading this effort with our partners, and we are committed to delivering a tournament that leaves a lasting legacy for the sport.”

Danny Townsend, CEO of SURJ Sports Investment, added: “The launch of an ATP Masters 1000 in Saudi Arabia is a defining moment in our journey to enhance the sports landscape. This tournament is more than an event; it is a statement of ambition, showcasing Saudi Arabia’s role as a global sports hub. In partnership with ATP, we are committed to creating an extraordinary experience for players and fans, while advancing our mission to develop sport at every level.”

Sports is a key strategic sector for PIF, unlocking opportunities and enriching lives while establishing Saudi Arabia as a global destination for sports and a driver of long-term economic growth. PIF supports a wide range of sports globally and domestically, including football/soccer, tennis, golf, electric motorsports, combat sports and esports both to drive sports’ global growth and encourage participation domestically.

With Riyadh having hosted the WTA Finals since 2024 and Jeddah as the home of the Next Gen ATP Finals since 2023, this latest announcement is set to strengthen the country’s connection with tennis and inspire an emerging fanbase with yet another glimpse of the world’s best players.

More details on the tournament venue and dates will be announced in due course.

About The ATP
The ATP’s mission is to serve tennis. As governing body of the ATP Tour and Challenger Tour we entertain a billion global fans, showcase the world’s greatest players at prestigious tournaments, and inspire the game’s next generation. From the United Cup in Australia, to Europe, the Americas and Asia, the stars of the game battle for titles and PIF ATP Rankings points at ATP Masters 1000, 500 and 250 events, and Grand Slams. All roads lead to the Nitto ATP Finals, our prestigious season finale held in Turin, Italy. Featuring only the season’s best 8 singles players and doubles teams, the tournament sees the crowning of the year-end ATP World No. 1, presented by PIF, the ultimate achievement in tennis. For more information, please visit www.ATPTour.com.

About PIF
PIF is the investment engine driving economic transformation for Saudi Arabia and the world. With an ambitious program to deliver Vision 2030, PIF invests in projects, companies and partners to diversify the Saudi economy, stimulate growth in every major sector, and create new opportunities for investment and employment.

And as a global investor and catalyst of change, PIF actively partners with the most pioneering organizations across the world to accelerate their growth, and transfer the technology and knowledge needed to build industry ecosystems of the future.

Since 2017, PIF has established 103 companies and is driving the transition to a more sustainable economy through strategic investments and partnerships across the Saudi public and private sector. PIF is laying the foundations for local and international partners to invest in the economic and societal transformation of Saudi Arabia.

About SURJ Sports Investment
SURJ (/Surge/) Sports Investment, a PIF company, is fueling the growth of international sport through strategic investments with global and local resonance. Its mandate centers on investing in global rights holders and key enablers in the global sports ecosystem—investments that will generate long-term returns, empower sports and sports-adjacent businesses to innovate and reach new audiences and create new experiences. SURJ Sports Investment is unlocking game-changing opportunities, inspiring the next generation of talent and fans in Saudi Arabia, the wider MENA region and beyond.

For more about SURJ Sports Investment, visit www.surjsports.com.

About ATP Media
As the broadcast and media arm of the ATP Tour, ATP Media was formed in 2001 as Tennis Properties Limited; providing the centralised exploitation of media rights across the ATP Tour, host broadcast production for the Nitto ATP Finals, Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF, ATP Masters 1000s and world feed production for the ATP 500s and, more recently, the ATP 250s. ATP Media has unrivalled access and expertise in the full-service broadcast production of men’s professional tennis with an end to end solution for global broadcasters incorporating: rights sales, multi-platform live production, data driven insights, award winning non-live short form and social media content, a global fibre distribution network and a market leading digital archive. ATP Media also owns and operates its own market leading direct-to-consumer platform TennisTV. For more information, please visit www.atpmedia.tv.