Paris (AFP)

Bulgaria, led by Grigor Dimitrov (20th in the world), will replace Switzerland's Roger Federer in the new ATP Cup, which will take place from 3 to 12 January 2020 in Australia, with the last six participating teams unveiled on Thursday.

The eighteen qualified nations, in addition to the host country, were unveiled in September. But since Switzerland had to give up the competition because of the withdrawal of Roger Federer for family reasons.

The last six countries competing, including Chile, Poland, Uruguay, Moldova and Norway, earned their ticket on the basis of the ATP ranking of their number one player on 13 November.

The 24 teams competing will be divided into six groups during the group stage and will compete in the Australian cities of Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.

Bulgaria will take the place of Switzerland in Group C where Belgium and Great Britain already appeared.

Most of the world's top 30 players, with the exception of Roger Federer, current world number 3, will take part in this new competition, which will end eight days before the first Grand Slam of the year in Melbourne (20 January-2 February ).

The ATP Cup follows the World Team Cup, an event that ATP had organized from 1978 to 2012 before stopping it, while a new Formula Davis Cup will be organized by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) in Madrid. from November 18th to 24th. Both competitions aim to become a tennis World Cup.

It will start with a group phase followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals, with two singles and one double 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 composition of ATP Cup groups (5 players per team):

Group A (Brisbane) - Serbia, France, South Africa, Chile

Group B (Perth) - Spain, Japan, Georgia, Uruguay

Group C (Sydney) - Bulgaria, Belgium, Great Britain, Moldova

Group D (Perth) - Russia, Italy, USA, Norway

Group E (Sydney) - Austria, Croatia, Argentina, Poland

Group F (Brisbane) - Germany, Greece, Canada, Australia

© 2019 AFP