Ten top U.S. tennis players will make their way to San Antonio in November for a new team competition, San Antonio Sports announced Tuesday.Â
The inaugural All American Cup will be held at Freeman Coliseum Nov. 11-13 and will feature professionals competing in a team format in both singles and doubles. Bob and Mike Bryan, the famed doubles players better known as the Bryan brothers, will lead the five-player teams.
“We really jumped at the opportunity to be captains and lead these amazing American young talents,” said Mike Bryan. “The guys that have signed up to play this year, you’ll see them for 10 to 15 years on tour, winning some of the biggest tournaments in the world.”
The Bryan brothers, who are identical twins, have won more games and Grand Slam titles than any other duo in the history of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the top-tier tennis tour for men. The brothers retired in 2020.
The format for the All American Cup is similar to the Laver Cup, a team competition in which European stars such as Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal take on a slate of top players from around the world.
“This is a format featuring Americans in the same sort of light,” Bob Bryan said. “We’re really the strongest country right now. We have 13 [Americans in the ATP’s] top 100 … on the men’s side, which is incredible.”
Bob Bryan will coach the USA East team, which includes former top 10 ATP star John Isner, Frances Tiafoe, Jack Sock, Denis Kudla and J.J. Wolf.
That team will face Mike Bryan’s USA West team, which includes the highest-ranked American, Taylor Fritz, along with Marcos Giron, Jenson Brooksby, Mackenzie McDonald and Steve Johnson.
As part of the event, teams will host a youth clinic on Nov. 10 with i play! students from local school districts, including San Antonio, Northside, Judson, Southwest, Edgewood and Harlandale independent school districts.
“We’re bringing our after-school athletes to an event like this for them to see what professional tennis looks like and to learn some tennis skills on the court, and really, to see they have opportunities through sport,” said Jenny Carnes, senior vice president and chief operating officer of San Antonio Sports.
Bob and Mike Bryan, who first had rackets in their hands at age 3 and started playing tennis at 6 years old, said part of their bigger goal is to inspire children.
“I think when you have a lineup and a format like this, it’s pretty easy to show fans and kids how exciting the game of tennis is,” said Mike Bryan.
The inaugural event will take place in San Antonio and be held in Austin in alternate years. The All American Cup will be broadcast on the Tennis Channel, according to San Antonio Sports.
Tickets will go on sale to the public Sept. 3 at 9 a.m. and can be purchased online directly or from Ticketmaster. Individual session ticket prices start at $45.
