A tournament does not die overnight. It gets sold.
Acapulco is on the chopping block. The Mexican ATP 500 is expected to leave the calendar from 2028, after one final edition in 2027. According to reports released on Thursday, its licence has been bought by Saudi-backed investors, and the event is set to move to the Middle East.
That is not all. Los Cabos, the ATP 250 staged in late July and early August, will also lose its status and drop to Challenger 175. Two years, two tournaments wiped off the map for the same country.
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Clearing the weeks for a 10th Masters 1000
Behind it all is a bigger job: the tour’s 10th Masters 1000, due in Saudi Arabia in February. To make it happen, weeks have to be cleared. The ATP has gone for the blunt option and is buying up existing event licences.
The men’s calendar has been clogged for years. Players have complained about it. The old-school tournaments do not have the cash to fight back when the offer arrives with that kind of cheque attached.
Two stops that mattered
Acapulco was never an anonymous event. The Mexican showpiece drew headline names every winter to its outdoor hard courts, in an atmosphere few tournaments on tour can match. Los Cabos acted as a warm-up for the American swing, right in the middle of summer.
Both are now gone or downgraded at the same time. For the Mexican federation the blow is twofold: the exposure goes, and so do the players who used to come through.
The 2028 calendar is shaping up to be almost unrecognisable. Other events are caught in the same buyout process, and the overhaul is far from finished. How many of the tour’s long-standing tournaments survive the hit is the open question.
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