The Tennis Napoli Cup (formerly the Capri Watch Cup) is a professional
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
tournament played on outdoor
red clay court
A clay court is one of the types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Clay courts are made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral construction aggregate, aggregate dependin ...
s. It is currently part of the
Association of Tennis Professionals
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, an ...
(ATP)
Challenger Tour. It is held annually at the Tennis Club Napoli in
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
, Italy, since 1995. The event was given a single-year
ATP 250
The ATP 250 tournaments (previously known as the ''ATP World Tour 250'' tournaments, ''ATP International Series'', and ''ATP World Series'') are the lowest tier of annual men's tennis tournaments on the main ATP Tour, after the four Grand Slam tou ...
license in 2022 due to the cancellation of tournaments in China because of the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.
History
The tournament is the modern iteration of one of the oldest tennis championships in Italy, the Campionato Partenopeo (''Parthenopean Championship''), which for men's singles was first contested in 1905. Over the years the men's tournament has been combined with other trophies, such as
Coppa Gordon Bennet (1907–1910 and 1937), Coppa Reale (1912–1915), Coppa del Municipio di Napoli (1926–1938), Campionato dell’Europa Centrale (1937–1938), Coppa Città di Napoli (1953–1970), Coppa Carlo D'Avalos (1970).
At the time of the amateur tennis the Naples tournament gained increasing importance over the years, becoming one of the pivotal events of the spring season of the courts of Europe and a decisive step in preparation for the
Internationals of Italy and
those of France. Following the affirmation of professionalism, the tournament lost its relevance and disappeared, rising from the mid-1990s and finding a place within the category of
ATP Challenger
The ATP Challenger Tour, known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series, is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. The Challenger Tour events are the second-highest tier of tennis competition, behind the ATP T ...
.
The women's tournament (singles and doubles), played simultaneously with the men's tournament until 1970, now no longer takes place.
Venue
From the beginning, the tournament is played on the courts of the Circolo del Tennis di Napoli, which occupies an area near the ancient ''
Villa Reale di Chiaia'', a few meters from the
Gulf of Naples
The Gulf of Naples (), also called the Bay of Naples, is a roughly 15-kilometer-wide (9.3 mi) gulf located along the south-western coast of Italy (province of Naples, Campania region). It opens to the west into the Mediterranean Sea. It i ...
and minutes from downtown and historic centre.
Past finals
Singles
Doubles
References
External links
Official websiteHistory of the club by Tennis Club Napoli (part 1)History of the club by Tennis Club Napoli (part 2)History of the club by Tennis Club Napoli (part 3)
{{ATP Challenger Tour
ATP Challenger Tour
Clay court tennis tournaments
Tennis tournaments in Italy
Tennis Napoli Cup