ATP to hold new men's Korea Open in Seoul in September

[ATP TOUR]

The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) added six new tournaments to its calendar Friday to replace the cancellation of events in China due to continued lockdown in the country, including the inaugural Korea Open to be held at Seoul Olympic Park Tennis Center in southern Seoul.

The Korea Open will be held between Sept. 26 and Oct. 2, on a hard court, marking the first time Korea hosts a ATP Tour event in 26 years.

“ATP has today confirmed the Shanghai Masters, China Open, Chengdu Open and Zhuhai Championships will not take place in 2022 due to ongoing restrictions related to Covid-19,” read an ATP statement on Friday.

The ATP Tour is the first-tier tour of men's tennis comprising of the ATP Finals, ATP Masters 1000, ATP 500 and ATP 250 events. The four Grand Slam events do not fall under the purview of the ATP Tour but ATP ranking points are will awarded. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour.

The women's equivalent of the ATP Tour is the WTA Tour and previously, the only tour-level tennis tournament held in Korea was a WTA Tour event, also named the Korea Open, held since 2004.

This is the first time that the first-tier ATP Tour returns to Seoul since 1996. Seoul had hosted an ATP-level event called the KAL Cup Korea Open from 1987 to 1996.

The Korea Open will be the fifth of the six single-year ATP Tour events this season. The five other single-year tournaments besides the Korea Open are to be held in San Diego, Tel Aviv, Florence, Gijon and Naples.

All six are ATP 250 tournaments, the lowest tier in the ATP.

Tickets for the Korea Open are not up for sale as of Sunday on the ATP website.

BY LIM JEONG-WON, YUN SO-HYANG [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]