Sydney (AFP)

Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have confirmed their presence at the new "ATP Cup" scheduled for January in Australia, announced Saturday the organizers who aims to make this competition a World Cup tennis.

"We are delighted to see so many stars line up for the first ATP Cup," said chairman of the men's tennis organization Chris Kermode, as the draw takes place Monday at the Paris Opera. Sydney.

Twenty-seven of the top 30 players in the world have agreed to participate as well as Andy Murray, whose protected classification has qualified Britain. France is also qualified with Gaël Monfils for player N.1 (12th world).

It is the individual singles ranking that determines the nations participating in this team competition that will succeed the World Team Cup, a test that ATP had organized from 1978 to 2012 before stopping it.

Twenty-four countries will be represented at the "ATP Cup" which will take place from January 3 to 12 in Sydney, Perth and Brisbane, and will end eight days before the start of the Australian Open (January 20 - February 2 ).

Eighteen nations are already qualified according to the ranking stopped Monday, in addition to Australia, host country. The last five nations will be determined on November 13th.

The competition will start with a group stage (six pools of four teams) followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals, with two singles and one doubles per game. The two top ranked players from each nation must participate, but if changes are needed, teams will be able to draw from three additional players.

The competition pays 750 ATP points in singles to the winners, less than the Grand Slams (2000 points), the Masters (1500 points) and the Masters 1000 but more than the other tournaments, with a prize money (gains) of 15 million dollars (approximately EUR 13.5 million).

The ATP Cup was revived as the legendary Davis Cup, hosted by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), was facelifted.

The 100-year event will take place in a new formula over a week at the end of November 2019 in Madrid, less than two months before the ATP competition, at the end of a demanding season, which has already pushed several stars to give up participating.

The list of the first teams qualified for the "ATP Cup" (according to the classification stopped on September 9th):

Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Russia, Australia, Germany, Greece, Japan, Italy, France, Belgium, Croatia, Argentina, Georgia, South Africa, United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia (host country)

© 2019 AFP