Concerns have been raised about the planned introduction of a Masters 1000 event in Riyadh and the ATP Tour relying on Saudi Arabian funding amid the ongoing unrest in the Middle East.

From 2028 onwards, a 10th Masters will be added to the ATP Tour‘s calendar, with the Saudi event scheduled to be held in February, weeks after the Australian Open.

However, the early signs are not all that positive, as the Six Kings Slam exhibition in the Saudi capital was postponed following a series of deadly attacks on its airport earlier this month.

Moreover, reports surfaced in September that the ATP and WTA Tours were considering replacing Middle Eastern tournaments due to security concerns in the region.

Indeed, Daniil Medvedev was among a number of players and ATP staff left stranded in Dubai following missile strikes on the United Arab Emirates. And off the back of the ATP’s bold new OneVision proposals, which include injecting $350million (£262m) in extra funds, analyst Gill Gross thinks tennis figureheads need to think long and hard about this matter. 

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Gross suggested that the Saudis could be a good long-term backer for the ATP Tour and losing them could potentially lead to a revenue shortfall. Ergo, if this conflict rumbles on for the long-term future, plans need to be put in place to safeguard players, staff, and more.

He said on his YouTube channel, “There’s supposed to be a Masters 1000 in Saudi Arabia in 2028, and the ATP really needs to look at this as an advanced warning of what could happen not just in 2028 but in what, I am sure the ATP hopes, is a decades-long future for this particular event in Riyadh.

“The fact is, instability and violence in the region that can endanger safety is not necessarily a new thing. There’s been that in the region for a long, long time now, and in this case it was pretty harrowing to see the Riyadh airport become a target and a hittable target at that by Houthi missiles coming from Yemen.

“My heart goes out to everybody that was affected by these awful strikes. Again, the ATP just needs to figure out what they do in this scenario when this becomes a part of their tour.”

The Six Kings Slam has been postponed until the end of December, when Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, and Novak Djokovic are among the players scheduled to compete. Everyone involved will hope there is no unrest when that exhibition rolls around.