Federer, Nadal and Murray to star in ATP all-star event

Adam Helfant, head of the Association of Tennis Professionals, has revealed further details of plans for an all-star event likely to feature the top names in the sport, including Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal. Helfant, a former Nike executive, plans for the event to promote tennis outside its usual core audience.

The inaugural event will likely be held immediately prior to next year's Indian Wells event in California, in March. Speaking exclusively to SportsPro, Helfant said: “It will probably involve an exhibition, a skills competition, a pro-am and an awards show that will reflect back on the prior season. We hope it will help expand our reach. A significant component of that will be our drive to raise some money for charity. We’ve done a lot and the players have done a lot in the past but we need to refine our umbrella charitable programme, which we’re in the process of doing, and we hope this will be a significant component of that."

• Phil Anderton: Tennis's new brand service

He added: "This is something that we started talking about internally around Wimbledon and we then spent some time with our players in New York and they’re excited about participating. They understand that the only way this can be a success is with their full commitment, their full participation.”

However Helfant was keen not to directly compare the proposed ATP all-star event to the National Basketball Association's hugely successful annual all-star game, which has become a major American event in its own right.
He said: “The NBA does a fantastic job with their all-star game and we’re not looking to necessarily mimic what other sports do, we’re just trying to create something that works for us. This will be our first year of doing it. I think we have reasonable expectations about what it will be over the day to day and a half we’ll do it. I think we will be able to create something that we can build some equity in and which will not just appeal to our core fan but expand our reach.”

Contact the author