Milan Indoor

Milan Indoor
Defunct tennis tournament
Event nameMilan (1978–97, 2001–05)
London (1998–2000)
TourATP Tour (1990–2005)
Grand Prix circuit (1981–89)
WCT circuit (1978–80)
Founded1978 (1978)
Abolished2005
Editions28
LocationMilan, Italy (1978–97, 2001–05)
London, UK (1998–2000)
VenuePalazzo dello Sport
PalaLido
Palazzo Trussardi
Assago Forum
Battersea Park
London Arena
SurfaceCarpet (i) (1978–99, 2001–05)
Hard (i) (2000)

The Milan Indoor, also known under various sponsored names, was a men's professional tennis tournament founded in 1973 as the ATP Milano Indoors an indoor carpet court event, that was the successor event the Milano International Indoors (1933-38, 1957-63) an indoor wood court tournament. In 1978 the event was revived as the Milan Indoor and held until 2005 when it was branded as the International of Lombardy or Internazionali di Lombardia. It took placed in Milan, Italy with the exception of three years (1998–2000) when it was held in London, United Kingdom. The event was part of the Grand Prix circuit (1981–89) and ATP Tour (1990–2005) and was played on indoor carpet courts, except for the 2000 edition which was played on an indoor hard court. The most successful singles players were John McEnroe and Boris Becker who both won four titles. Stefan Edberg and Roger Federer won the first singles title of their career at the event.[1] A single female edition of the event was held in 1991, won by Monica Seles. Due to a lack of sponsorship the tournament was replaced on the 2006 ATP Tour by the Zagreb Indoors.[2]

History

The first four editions of the tournament, from 1978 until 1982, were part of the World Championship Tennis Series of tournaments, which during that time was incorporated into the Grand Prix calendar. From 1982 through 1989 the event was part of the Super Series tier of the Grand Prix circuit. Initially the tournament was played at the Palazzo dello Sport, near the San Siro stadium, but in 1985 the PalaLido became the event venue after heavy snowfall in January that year had caused the roof of the Palazzo dello Sport to collapse, forcing it to close. In 1987 the tournament moved again, this time to the newly-build Palazzo Trussardi. From 1990 to 1992, during the first years of the ATP Tour, the tournament was part of the World Series, its lowest tier, but in 1993 it was upgraded to the Championship Series tier. In 1991, the Assago Forum became the host of the event, before it moved back again to the Palatrussardi for the 1996 and 1997 editions.

In 1998 the tournament moved to London, England and was played at Battersea Park before moving to the London Arena in 2000 when it became part of the International Series Gold category. Due to the loss of its main sponsor the tournament moved back to its original host city Milan in 2001 where it was held at the PalaLido until its last edition in 2005.[3] John McEnroe and Boris Becker won the singles title four times and the roll of honor contains 10 Grand Slam tournament winners, including Stefan Edberg and Roger Federer, who both won their first career singles title in Milan.

During its history the tournament was known under various, mostly sponsored, names; WCT Milan, the Cuore Tennis Cup, the Fila Trophy, the Stella Artois Indoor, the Muratti Time Indoors, the Italian Indoors, the Guardian Direct Cup, the AXA Cup, the Breil Milano Indoors, the ATP Indesit Milano Indoors, and the Internazionali di Lombardia.[4]

Past finals

Roger Federer won his first career title in Milan in 2001, defeating Julien Boutter in the final
Boris Becker was the most successful player at the event, reaching five singles finals -winning four- and three doubles finals -winning all three of them-

Men

Singles

Location Year Champion Runner-up Score
Milan 1978 Sweden Björn Borg United States Vitas Gerulaitis 6–3, 6–3
1979 United States John McEnroe Australia John Alexander 6–4, 6–3
1980 United States John McEnroe India Vijay Amitraj 6–1, 6–4
1981 United States John McEnroe Sweden Björn Borg 7–6(7–2), 6–4
1982 Argentina Guillermo Vilas United States Jimmy Connors 6–3, 6–3
1983 Czechoslovakia Ivan Lendl South Africa Kevin Curren 5–7, 6–3, 7–6
1984 Sweden Stefan Edberg Sweden Mats Wilander 6–4, 6–2
1985 United States John McEnroe Sweden Anders Järryd 6–4, 6–1
1986 Czechoslovakia Ivan Lendl Sweden Joakim Nyström 6–2, 6–2, 6–4
1987 West Germany Boris Becker Czechoslovakia Miloslav Mečíř 6–4, 6–3
1988 France Yannick Noah United States Jimmy Connors 4–4 retired
1989 West Germany Boris Becker Soviet Union Alexander Volkov 6–1, 6–2
1990 Czech Republic Ivan Lendl United States Tim Mayotte 6–3, 6–2
1991 Soviet Union Alexander Volkov Italy Cristiano Caratti 6–1, 7–5
1992 Italy Omar Camporese Croatia Goran Ivanišević 3–6, 6–3, 6–4
1993 Germany Boris Becker Spain Sergi Bruguera 6–3, 6–3
1994 Germany Boris Becker Czech Republic Petr Korda 6–2, 3–6, 6–3
1995 Russia Yevgeny Kafelnikov Germany Boris Becker 7–5, 5–7, 7–6(8–6)
1996 Croatia Goran Ivanišević Switzerland Marc Rosset 6–3, 7–6(7–3)
1997 Croatia Goran Ivanišević Spain Sergi Bruguera 6–2, 6–2
London 1998 Russia Yevgeny Kafelnikov France Cédric Pioline 7–5, 6–4
1999 Netherlands Richard Krajicek United Kingdom Greg Rusedski 7–6(8–6), 6–7(5–7), 7–5
2000 Switzerland Marc Rosset Russia Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6–4, 6–4
Milan 2001 Switzerland Roger Federer France Julien Boutter 6–4, 6–7(7–9), 6–4
2002 Italy Davide Sanguinetti Switzerland Roger Federer 7–6(7–2), 4–6, 6–1
2003 Netherlands Martin Verkerk Russia Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6–4, 5–7, 7–5
2004 France Antony Dupuis Croatia Mario Ančić 6–4, 6–7(12–14), 7–6(7–5)
2005 Sweden Robin Söderling Czech Republic Radek Štěpánek 6–3, 6–7(2–7), 7–6(7–5)
replaced by Zagreb Indoors

Doubles

Location Year Champion Runners-up Score
Milan 1978 Spain José Higueras
Paraguay Víctor Pecci
Poland Wojtek Fibak
Mexico Raúl Ramírez
5–7, 7–6, 7–6
1979 United States Peter Fleming
United States John McEnroe
Argentina José Luis Clerc
Czechoslovakia Tomáš Šmíd
6–1, 6–3
1980 United States Peter Fleming
United States John McEnroe
United States Andrew Pattison
United States Butch Walts
6–4, 6–3
1981 United States Brian Gottfried
Mexico Raúl Ramírez
United States John McEnroe
United States Peter Rennert
7–6, 6–3
1982 Switzerland Heinz Günthardt
Australia Peter McNamara
Australia Mark Edmondson
United States Sherwood Stewart
7–6, 7–6
1983 Czechoslovakia Tomáš Šmíd
Czechoslovakia Pavel Složil
United States Fritz Buehning
United States Peter Fleming
6–2, 5–7, 6–4
1984 Czech Republic Tomáš Šmíd
Czechoslovakia Pavel Složil
South Africa Kevin Curren
United States Steve Denton
6–4, 6–3
1985 Switzerland Heinz Günthardt
Sweden Anders Järryd
Australia Broderick Dyke
Australia Wally Masur
6–2, 6–1
1986 Rhodesia Colin Dowdeswell
South Africa Christo Steyn
South Africa Brian Levine
Australia Laurie Warder
6–3, 4–6, 6–1
1987 Germany Boris Becker
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Živojinović
Spain Sergio Casal
Spain Emilio Sánchez
3–6, 6–3, 6–4
1988 West Germany Boris Becker
West Germany Eric Jelen
Czech Republic Miloslav Mečíř
Czechoslovakia Tomáš Šmíd
6–3, 6–3
1989 Switzerland Jakob Hlasek
United States John McEnroe
Hungary Balázs Taróczy
Switzerland Heinz Günthardt
6–3, 6–4
1990 Italy Omar Camporese
Italy Diego Nargiso
Netherlands Tom Nijssen
West Germany Udo Riglewski
6–4, 6–4
1991 Italy Omar Camporese
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Goran Ivanišević
Netherlands Tom Nijssen
Czechoslovakia Cyril Suk
6–4, 7–6
1992 United Kingdom Neil Broad
Australia David Macpherson
Spain Sergio Casal
Spain Emilio Sánchez
5–7, 7–5, 6–4
1993 Australia Mark Kratzmann
Australia Wally Masur
Netherlands Tom Nijssen
Czech Republic Cyril Suk
4–6, 6–3, 6–4
1994 Netherlands Tom Nijssen
Czech Republic Cyril Suk
Netherlands Hendrik Jan Davids
South Africa Piet Norval
4–6, 7–6, 7–6
1995 Germany Boris Becker
France Guy Forget
Czech Republic Petr Korda
Czech Republic Karel Nováček
6–2, 6–4
1996 Italy Andrea Gaudenzi
Croatia Goran Ivanišević
France Guy Forget
Switzerland Jakob Hlasek
6–4, 7–5
1997 Argentina Pablo Albano
Sweden Peter Nyborg
South Africa David Adams
Russia Andrei Olhovskiy
6–4, 7–6
London 1998 Czech Republic Martin Damm
United States Jim Grabb
Russia Yevgeny Kafelnikov
Czech Republic Daniel Vacek
6–4, 7–5
1999 United Kingdom Tim Henman
United Kingdom Greg Rusedski
Zimbabwe Byron Black
South Africa Wayne Ferreira
6–3, 7–6(8–6)
2000 South Africa David Adams
South Africa John-Laffnie de Jager
United States Jan-Michael Gambill
United States Scott Humphries
6–3, 6–7(7–9), 7–6(13–11)
Milan 2001 Netherlands Paul Haarhuis
Netherlands Sjeng Schalken
Sweden Johan Landsberg
Belgium Tom Vanhoudt
7–6(7–5), 7–6(7–4)
2002 Germany Karsten Braasch
Russia Andrei Olhovskiy
France Julien Boutter
Belarus Max Mirnyi
3–6, 7–6(7–5), [12–10]
2003 Czech Republic Petr Luxa
Czech Republic Radek Štěpánek
Czech Republic Tomáš Cibulec
Czech Republic Pavel Vízner
6–4, 7–6(7–4)
2004 United States Jared Palmer
Czech Republic Pavel Vízner
Italy Daniele Bracciali
Italy Giorgio Galimberti
6–4, 6–4
2005 Italy Daniele Bracciali
Italy Giorgio Galimberti
France Arnaud Clément
France Jean-François Bachelot
6–7(8–10), 7–6(8–6), 6–4

Women

Singles

Location Year Champion Runner-up Score
Milan 1991 Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Monica Seles United States Martina Navratilova 6–3, 3–6, 6–4

Doubles

Location Year Champion Runners-up Score
Milan 1991 United States Sandy Collins
United States Lori McNeil
Belgium Sabine Appelmans
Italy Raffaella Reggi
7–6(7–0), 6–3

Event names

Official
  • ATP Milano Indoors (1973)
  • Milan Indoor (1978-1984)
  • Italian Indoor (1985)
  • Milan Indoor (1986-1989)
  • Italian Indoor (1990)
  • Milan Indoor (1991-1995)
  • Italian Indoors (1996-1997)
  • London Indoor (1998-2000)
  • Milan Indoor (2001-2002)
  • Milano Indoor (2003)
  • ATP Milan Indoor (2004)
  • International of Lombardy (2005)
Sponsored
  • Ramazzotti Cup (1979-1980)
  • Cuore Cup (1981)
  • Fila Trophy Italian Indoor (1985)
  • Fila Trophy Milan (1987)
  • Stella Artois Milan Indoor (1988)
  • Stella Artois Italian Indoor (1990)
  • Muratti Time Indoor (1991-1995)
  • Guardian Direct Cup (1998-1999)
  • AXA Cup (2000)
  • Breil Milano Indoor (2003)
  • Indesit ATP Milan Indoor (2004)

See also

References

  1. ^ Remo Borgatti (18 February 2016). "Tornei scomparsi. Stelle senza polvere all'indoor di Milano". Ubitennis (in Italian).
  2. ^ Christian Turba (16 February 2012). "Milano, quanto ci manchi!". Ubitennis (in Italian).
  3. ^ John Roberts (17 October 2000). "London loses ATP Tour event to Milan". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-14.
  4. ^ "Battersea power showtime". Independent. 22 February 1998. Archived from the original on 2022-05-14.