LONDON, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- London, Manchester, Singapore, Tokyo and Turin have been selected as the finalist bidding cities to host the ATP Finals from 2021 to 2025, the governing body of men's professional tennis announced on Friday.

The ATP said in a statement that the five cities will now be assessed in the final phase of the bidding process to host the lucrative annual tournament.

The announcement of the final shortlist follows an extensive bid application process that began in August 2018 in which more than 40 cities worldwide expressed an interest in hosting the season-ending event.

The final phase of the process will see the ATP visit the candidate cities to further review their respective visions for the ATP Finals, with a decision on the successful candidate to be made not before March 2019.

The season-ending event features only the world's best eight qualified singles players and doubles teams following a year-long race to qualify.

London has hosted the event since 2009 and extended its current agreement to host through to 2020 in May 2017.