ATP Cup reveals 40% prize money boost in 2022 and 2023 expansion
After 2021 presented a hugely affected second ATP Cup event, 2022 promises to be more lucrative before opening up participation in 2023.
The prize pool for the ATP kick-off event has risen from $10 million Australian (then $7.5 million US) to $14 million Australian (about $9.85 million US) to be shared among the national teams competing.
While a welcome increase from the severely pandemic hit staging in 2021, it is still notably lower than the $22 million pool for the inaugural 2020 event.
After the pandemic forced the ATP Cup to shrink to 12 teams in 2021, 16 teams will now fight for the title.
“For the ATP Cup in 2022 there will be 16 teams in competition, due to it being played in one city only,” tournament director Tom Larner explained.
“We plan to bring back the original 24-team ATP Cup format across three Australian cities for 2023,” he added.
All matches at the 2022 event will be played in Sydney. In 2021, the event was held at Melbourne Park, whereas in 2020 it went ahead in Brisbane, Perth and Sydney before the knockouts took place in Sydney.
Russia are the defending champions after defeating Italy in the 2021 ATP Cup final.
They will enter the 2022 less than a month after securing their third Davis Cup triumph in Madrid, Spain, defeating Croatia in that final.
Participation in the ATP Cup is determined by the ranking of a nation’s number one singles player for 15 nations, with hosts Australia in by wildcard.
That means that should world number one Novak Djokovic choose not to travel to Australia for the event and the Australian Open, Serbia would not qualify to compete.
The US would take their place as the 15th qualified team, with world number 23 Taylor Fritz as their number one singles player.
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