ROME (AP) The Italian tennis federation wants to host a year-end tournament in Milan or Turin starting next year for the world's top under-21 male players.
The tournament would award 1.5 million euros ($1.7 million) in prize money, federation president Angelo Binaghi announced Sunday before the Italian Open finals.
The ATP confirmed to The Associated Press that plans for a ''Next Generation'' tournament are in the works, with an announcement expected after Wimbledon. A few cities are bidding to host the event, which ATP president Chris Kermode is anxious to introduce.
The tournament would likely be held in early November the week before the ATP Finals in London and have a similar format to that event.
''So it would make sense to host it in Europe,'' Binaghi said. ''We want to bring a big tournament to northern Italy and we've already discussed the possibility with local authorities.''
The tournament would invite the top seven under-21 players in the ATP rankings plus one wild card, Binaghi said.
The top under-21 players in the current rankings are No. 41 Borna Coric of Croatia, No. 70 Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia, No. 76 Chung Hyeon of South Korea and No. 81 Alexander Zverev of Germany.
The event could be held inside the Mediolanum Forum in Assago, on the outskirts of Milan, or the Palasport Olimpico built for the 2006 Turin Olympics.
Milan last held an ATP tournament in 2005.