One Year To Go: 2025 World Masters Games, Taipei and New Taipei City
This week marks a year until the 2025 World Masters Games, which will be held from 18-25 May 2025, in Taipei and New Taipei City.
Excitingly, the ITF World Tennis Masters Tour has sanctioned a new high-level event at the World Masters Games, which will run alongside an existing recreational event and will form part of the ITF Masters Tour.
Graded at MT700 level, the tennis event (named the ‘Grade A Open’) will attract high-level players from across the globe and will give players the opportunity to earn significant ranking points.
The ITF was a founding member of the International Masters Games Association (IMGA) which owns this event. As such, the introduction of an MT700 marks a significant moment for both the ITF and IMGA.
Matt Byford, Head of the ITF World Tennis Masters Tour said, “The ITF are excited to collaborate with the 2025 World Masters Games in Taipei City and New Taipei City which promises to be a wonderful event, and to promote a multi-sports games opportunity to our global community of players, particularly those in Asia.”
The World Masters Games, which is expected to attract 40,000 athletes from across the globe, aims to offer a similar multi-sport experience for athletes aged 30 and over, as the Olympics, Paralympics, and Youth Olympics.
Given that the 2025 World Masters Games will be held in Taipei and New Taipei City, the staging of a Masters tournament for the first time aligns with the ITF's stategic plan to boost participation and foster growth across Asia.
Indeed, Japan will host the ITF Masters 45+ World Team and Individual Championships later this year and this will mark the first time that an ITF Masters World Championships will be held in Asia.
Similarly, 2024 is proving an exciting year for Asia on the Tour with various Asian nations either joining or returning to the calendar.
For instance, Bangladesh will host an ITF Masters tournament for the first time in 2024. United Arab Emirates (which last hosted in 2013), Korea Republic (2019), and Lebanon (2021) are returning to the Tour.
Further new and returning Asian nations are expected to be added to the calendar in the coming months as well.
Moreover, the number of ITF Masters tournaments in Asia has risen considerably over the last few years. For instance, in 2022 there were 39 tournaments in Asia and this increased to 59 in 2023, thus demonstrating the ITF's aim to increase tournament opportunities for players across the region.
The 2025 World Masters Games, therefore, provides an exciting opportunity for the Masters Tour to continue to grow and increase participation in Asia.