ATP draw ceremony branded ‘disgrace’

Former Wimbledon champion Amelie Mauresmo has branded an ATP draw ceremony a "disgrace" after young male players were made to choose female models to reveal their opponents.

The draw was held in Milan on Sunday to determine the groups for the next NextGen ATP Finals, a tournament taking place this week featuring eight of the world's best players aged younger than 21.

The players were asked to select a model to escort them down a catwalk arm in arm before the model then revealed their group letter to the audience. One woman lifted up her dress to show the letter 'A' written on her thigh while another took off her jacket, with the letter 'B' marked on her back.

America's Jared Donaldson looked particularly awkward while a model danced around him on stage. Andy Murray's former coach Mauresmo tweeted a video of the draw on Twitter along with the caption "disgrace" while Judy Murray did the same, commenting "awful".

France's world number 38 Alize Cornet added: "Good job ATPWorldTour. Supposed to be a futurist event right? #backtozero".

Most of the players involved looked bewildered during the ceremony, which is run by the ATP, the governing body of the men's game, in partnership with the Italian Tennis Federation and the Italian Olympic Committee. The Italian Tennis Federation said it was not involved in the organisation of the event, which it said was arranged by the ATP.