TheMilan Indoor, also known under various sponsored names, was a men's professionaltennis tournament founded in 1973 as the ATP Milano Indoors an indoor carpet court event, that was the successor event the Milano International Indoors (1933-38, 1957-63) an indoor wood court tournament. In 1978 the event was revived as the Milan Indoor and held until 2005 when it was branded as the International of Lombardy or Internazionali di Lombardia. It took place in Milan, Italy, with the exception of three years (1998–2000) when it was held in London, United Kingdom. The event was part of theGrand Prix circuit (1981–89) andATP Tour (1990–2005) and was played on indoorcarpet courts, except for the 2000 edition which was played on an indoor hard court. The most successful singles players wereJohn McEnroe andBoris Becker who both won four titles.Stefan Edberg andRoger Federer won the first singles title of their career at the event.[1] A single female edition of the event was held in 1991, won byMonica Seles. Due to a lack of sponsorship the tournament was replaced on the2006 ATP Tour by theZagreb Indoors.[2]
The first four editions of the tournament, from 1978 until 1982, were part of theWorld Championship Tennis Series of tournaments, which during that time was incorporated into the Grand Prix calendar. From 1982 through 1989 the event was part of theSuper Series tier of the Grand Prix circuit. Initially the tournament was played at thePalazzo dello Sport, near the San Siro stadium, but in 1985 thePalaLido became the event venue after heavy snowfall in January that year had caused the roof of the Palazzo dello Sport to collapse, forcing it to close. In 1987 the tournament moved again, this time to the newly-buildPalazzo Trussardi. From 1990 to 1992, during the first years of theATP Tour, the tournament was part of theWorld Series, its lowest tier, but in 1993 it was upgraded to theChampionship Series tier. In 1991, theAssago Forum became the host of the event, before it moved back again to the Palatrussardi for the 1996 and 1997 editions.
In 1998 the tournament moved to London, England and was played atBattersea Park before moving to theLondon Arena in 2000 when it became part of theInternational Series Gold category. Due to the loss of its main sponsor the tournament moved back to its original host city Milan in 2001 where it was held at the PalaLido until its last edition in 2005.[3]John McEnroe andBoris Becker won the singles title four times and the roll of honor contains 10 Grand Slam tournament winners, includingStefan Edberg andRoger Federer, who both won their first career singles title in Milan.
During its history the tournament was known under various, mostly sponsored, names;WCT Milan, theCuore Tennis Cup, theFila Trophy, theStella Artois Indoor, theMuratti Time Indoors, theItalian Indoors, theGuardian Direct Cup, theAXA Cup, theBreil Milano Indoors, theATP Indesit Milano Indoors, and theInternazionali di Lombardia.[4]
Roger Federer won his first career title in Milan in 2001, defeatingJulien Boutter in the finalBoris Becker was the most successful player at the event, reaching five singles finals -winning four- and three doubles finals -winning all three of them-