The ATP Cup, a tournament of nations which will have its second edition this year, has published the list of participants and includes Rafa Nadal and Roberto Bautista to defend Spain. The tournament, which unlike the Davis Cup has avoided cancellation, will take place February 1-5 in Melbourne. Serbia, led by Novak Djokovic, defend the title.
Little by little more details of what it will look like are known the new tennis season in 2021. A few days ago, the ATP released the competition schedule for the first few weeks, during which Melbourne will become the world’s tennis epicenter, hosting several tournaments, including the most notable: the ATP Cup and the Australian Open.
The first of them, The ATP Cup, will be held from February 1 to 5 and will serve as a prelude to the first Grand Slam of the season. Recently, the list of participants was announced and the tournament is awaiting participation of Rafa Nadal to defend Spain, with Roberto Bautista. In the list of players is also Novak Djokovic, who will defend the title won by Serbia. There is also optimism to be seen Roger Federer, with Switzerland, and which should reappear on the Australian circuit, depending on the evolution of his knee.
Confirmation of the participants is still awaited, as to date it is not known that Rafa Nadal had in his plans to participate in the ATP Cup, although the new schedule and the dispute at Melbourne Park, could serve as an incentive to have more contacts the track on which the Australian Open will take place, one of the challenges of the Balearics for the new year. At the moment, the first tennis players from the 12 countries classified for the ATP Cup 2021 have been entered.
The ATP Cup was born in 2020, a tournament coming directly to compete with the Davis Cup, which from the hand of Gerard pique had released its new format in November 2019. The proximity in time of the two and the fact that the two were also between nations make them direct competitors and can make one of them lose face. In reality, some tennis players have questioned the coexistence of the two. In addition, the ATP Cup grants points for the ranking, which helped that more tennis players were ready to play the tournament.
The full list of participants for the ATP Cup 2021:
Serbia: Novak Djokovic and Dusan Lajovic
Spain: Rafael Nadal and Roberto Bautista
Austria: Dominic Thiem and Dennis Novak
Russie: Daniil Medvedev et Andrey Rublev
Switzerland: Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka
Greece: Stefanos Tsitsipas and Michail Pervolakaris
Germany: Alexander Zverev and Jan-Lennard Struff
Argentine: Diego Schwartzman et Guido Pella
Italy: Matteo Berrettini and Fabio Fognini
Japon: Kei Nishikori et Yoshihito Nishioka
France: Gael Monfils and Benoit Paire
Australia: joker
(Reserve: Canada)
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