The following statement was issued Tuesday, August 6 by ATP Management:

The ATP Tour is pleased to announce it obtained a significant victory today when a jury unanimously dismissed the antitrust claims filed in Delaware Federal Court by plaintiffs Deutscher Tennis Bund, Rothenbaum Sport GMBH and Qatar Tennis Federation. Plaintiffs, the owners of the Hamburg, Germany tennis tournament, challenged the ATP's right to set the format of its circuit. Under ATP's restructuring plan starting in 2009, the Hamburg event will be recategorized and the event will be moved on the ATP calendar to take place in July. In finding for the ATP, the jury rejected plaintiffs' claims that ATP had violated Section 1 and Section 2 of the Sherman Act.

The jury's decision followed Judge Sleet's decision on Monday to dismiss all fiduciary duty and other claims filed by the plaintiffs against six ATP Board Directors and various state law claims against ATP.

Etienne de Villiers, ATP Executive Chairman, commented: "We are delighted by today’s unanimous jury decision in favor of the ATP. Both the jury and Judge Sleet have recognized and upheld our fundamental right to set and make changes to the ATP Tour calendar, changes that are necessary if we are to unlock the full potential of our sport. Their decision also supports ATP’s position that this process of change was undertaken in a transparent, rigorous and good faith manner.

“These are exciting times for men’s professional tennis with the ATP set to unveil the largest set of changes to the Tour since its inception in 1990. The 2009 ATP World Tour will deliver record prize money to players, provide unprecedented amounts of investment into new and existing stadia, vastly increase the promotion of the sport, and see increased support from existing and new sponsors. Finally we will have the world class Tour our players, tournaments and fans deserve.”

The ATP has reserved a 500 level tournament position on the 2009 ATP World Tour calendar in week 30 (week commencing 20 July 2009) for Hamburg should they wish it.