The 2011 men's World Team Cup in Duesseldorf has been cancelled after organisers at the Rochus club failed to sign a sponsor, they said on Monday.

"We could not find a main sponsor," tournament director Dietloff von Arnim told reporters. "This is why with a heavy heart we decided not to stage the tournament. The financial hole and the risk linked to it were too great."

The clay-court tournament, which pitted national teams against each other over one week, had not attracted the top players in recent years but was seen as useful preparation for the French Open.

The event was first staged in 1978 and in the past players like Pete Sampras, John McEnroe and Boris Becker had played in the event for their countries.

Argentina beat the United States 2-1 this year.

"We are all very sad. But it is a fact that a club alone cannot organise a tournament of that magnitude," said Horst Klosterkemper, the tournament chairman who devised it more than three decades ago.

The cancellation was the latest setback for German tennis after the men's Hamburg tournament lost its Masters Series status two years ago and the Berlin women's event was scrapped last year.