Following a competitive bid process, the
Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) announced that the Italian Tennis Federation, in association with the
Italian Olympic Committee, would organise a new ATP tournament featuring the world's top 21-and-under singles players of the ATP Tour season. The first five editions of the tournament were hosted in
Milan, Italy from 2017 to 2022. Already in the first year, a special circumstance occurred. The 20-year-old
Alexander Zverev played such a successful season that he was qualified at the same time for the Next Gen ATP Finals and for the
ATP Finals of the best eight players from 2017. As the events were dated close and scheduled directly one after the other, the German prospect opted for the latter option. In the 2024 season, the ATP announced an expansion of the Next Gen brand. In addition to lowering the age threshold from 21-and-under to 20-and-under, a Next Gen Accelerator Programme was introduced. This allows Next Gen labelled players who reach the top 350 of the ATP rankings up to 8 opportunities to enter the main draws of
ATP Challenger Tour 125 and ATP Challenger Tour 100 events. Furthermore, those who reach the top 250 are provided a main draw entry for an
ATP 250 event, along with two qualifying opportunities for them. ==Format==