ATP Finals: Manchester, Turin and London in five-city shortlist to host from 2021
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) has released the names of the five cities that have been shortlisted to host the prestigious, season-ending ATP World Tour Finals from 2021.
Current hosts London, as well as Manchester, Singapore, Turin and Tokyo, are the final 5 from a list of more than 40 cities considered.
The event has been held at the O2 in London since 2009, but the ATP will decide in March 2019 on whether to continue with the current arrangements or take the competition to a new venue.
ATP chief executive and president Chris Kermode said:
"It has been a highly competitive process, and the candidate cities on the shortlist deserve huge credit for the passion and creative vision they have shown in their respective plans to continue the growth of our showpiece event."
The bidding process was highly competitive, with the Turin and Manchester bids said to extremely good. Manchester lost out to the Chinese city of Shenzhen earlier this year in its attempt to host the WTA Finals - the women's equivalent of the ATP Finals.
The week-long Finals features the world's eight best male singles and doubles players, and takes place at the tail-end of the tennis calendar in November. This year's title was won by Alexander Zverev, who shocked Novak Djokovic in the final.
The ATP insists that the presentation of the bids and the expected attendance are more important than money, while considering the host city. However, with a record $14 million prize fund on offer at the WTA finals at Shenzhen, there is pressure to match or better that too.
Tokyo were the first hosts of the tournament in 1970. Current sponsors Nitto are also from Japan, and that might help Tokyo's bid to take the tournament back where it started.
Paris, Barcelona, Sydney and Shanghai have also played hosts in the past, with New York's Madison Square Garden staging the Finals for 13 years consecutively from 1977 to 1989 - its longest run at a single venue.