Association of Tennis Professionals
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) was formed in 1972 to protect the interests of male professional tennis players. From 1990, the association organized the principal worldwide tennis tour, the ATP Tour.
Current ATP Tour
The ATP Tour comprises tennis tournaments with ATP Masters Series, ATP International Series Gold, ATP International Series and ATP Challenger Series. The ATP tour also oversees the World Team Cup played in Düsseldorf in May and the senior's Tour of Champions.
Players and doubles teams with most ranking points play in the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup, which is run jointly with ITF. The week-long introductory level Futures tournaments are ITF events and they count towards ATP Entry Ranking. The four-week ITF Satellite tournaments were discontinued in 2007. Grand Slam tournaments are overseen by the ITF and they count towards the players' ATP rankings. The details of the professional tennis tour (2007) are:
| Event category | Number | Total prize money (USD) | Winner's ranking points | Governing body |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Slams | 4 | 6,784,000 to 9,943,000 | 1,000 | ITF |
| Tennis Masters Cup | 1 | 4,450,000 | 750 | ATP & ITF |
| ATP Masters Series | 9 | 2,450,000 to 3,450,000 | 500 | ATP |
| ATP International Series Gold | 9 | 755,000 to 1,426,250 | 300 to 250 | ATP |
| ATP International Series | 43 | 416,000 to 1,000,000 | 250 to 175 | ATP |
| ATP Challenger Series | 115 | 25,000 to 150,000 | 50 to 100 | ATP |
| Futures | 420 | 10,000 and 15,000 | 12 to 24 | ITF |
2009 changes
Template:Future event ATP tournaments in 2009 will be classified as 1000 series, 500 series, and 250 series with the final calendar announced at the 2007 Tennis Masters Cup.
The 1000 series includes tournaments at Indian Wells, Miami, Rome, Madrid, Canada, Cincinnati, Shanghai, Paris, and the end-of-year event, the Tennis Masters Finals, in London. Hamburg has been replaced by a clay court event at Madrid, which will be a combined men's and women's tournament. From 2011, Rome and Cincinnati will also be combined tournaments. Severe sanctions will be placed on top players skipping the 1000 series events, unless medical proof is presented.[1] Plans to eliminate Monte Carlo as a Masters Series event led to controversy and protests from players as well as organizers. Hamburg and Monte Carlo filed a lawsuit against the ATP and it was decided that Monte Carlo would keep its original prize money, but it would not have the status of Masters Series 1000, therefore it would no longer be a compulsory tournament for top-ranked players.[2] Hamburg has not settled its suit with the ATP.
The 500 series includes tournaments at Rotterdam, Dubai, Acapulco, Memphis, Barcelona, Washington, Beijing, Tokyo, Basel and Valencia.
Rankings
ATP publishes weekly rankings of professional players, ATP Entry Ranking, a 52-week rolling ranking and ATP Race, a year to date rankings. The Entry Ranking is used for determining qualification for entry and seeding in all tournaments for both singles and doubles. The Entry Ranking period is the cumulative points earned in the past 52 weeks, except for the Tennis Masters Cup, whose points are dropped following the last ATP event of the year. The player with the most points by season's end is the World Number 1 of the year.
ATP Race is an annual race from season start to season end. Every player starts collecting points from the beginning of the season.
People
Etienne de Villiers is the current Executive Chairman and President of ATP with Mark Young as the CEO of Americas. Andy Anson is the CEO of Europe division while Brad Drewett heads as CEO of the International division.
The ATP Board includes Etienne de Villiers along with tournament representatives, Željko Franulović, Charlie Pasarell and Graham Pearce. It also includes three player representatives with two-year terms, Jacco Eltingh as the European representative, Iggy Jovanovic as the International representative and Perry Rogers as the Americas representative. The player representatives are elected by the ATP Player Council.
The 10-member ATP Player Council delivers advisory decisions to the Board of Directors, which has the power to accept or reject the Council's suggestions. The Council consists of four players who are ranked within top 50 in singles (currently Ivan Ljubicic, James Blake, Thomas Johansson and Olivier Rochus), two players who are ranked between 51 and 100 in singles (Paul Goldstein and Davide Sanguinetti), two top 100 in doubles (Bob Bryan and Kevin Ullyett) and two at-large members (Paradorn Srichaphan and Martin Garcia).
References
See also
- International Tennis Federation
- Women's Tennis Association
- World Championship Tennis
- Grand Prix tennis tournaments
- ATP Awards
- ATP Tour records
- List of ATP number 1 ranked players
- Tennis statistics
- Tennis, male players statistics