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Association of Tennis Professionals

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Association of Tennis Professionals
File:ATP World Tour.png
SportProfessional tennis
AbbreviationATP
FoundedSeptember 1972; 52 years ago (1972-09)
LocationLondon (HQ)
Monaco
Ponte Vedra Beach
Sydney
ChairmanChris Kermode
Official website
www.atpworldtour.com
Current season: 2017 ATP World Tour
File:ATP Tennis.png
Previous logo

The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Bob Briner, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to protect the interests of male professional tennis players. Drysdale became the first President. Since 1990, the association has organized the worldwide tennis tour for men and linked the title of the tour with the organization's name. In 1990 the organization was called the ATP Tour, which was renamed in 2001 as just ATP and the tour being called ATP Tour. In 2009 the name was changed again and is now known as the ATP World Tour.[1] It is an evolution of the tour competitions previously known as Grand Prix tennis tournaments and World Championship Tennis (WCT).

The ATP's global headquarters are in London, United Kingdom. ATP Americas is based in Ponte Vedra Beach, United States; ATP Europe is headquartered in Monaco; and ATP International, which covers Africa, Asia and Australasia, is based in Sydney, Australia.

The counterpart organization in the women's professional game is the Women's Tennis Association (WTA).

History

Started in 1972 by Jack Kramer, Donald Dell, and Cliff Drysdale, it was first managed by Jack Kramer, as Executive Director, and Cliff Drysdale, as President.[2] Jack Kramer created the professional players' rankings system, which started the following year and continues to this day. From 1974 to 1989, the men's circuit was administered by a sub-committee called the Men's International Professional Tennis Council (MIPTC). It was made up of representatives of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the ATP, and tournament directors from around the world. The ATP requested and got the MIPTC to introduce a drug testing rule, making tennis the first professional sport to institute a drug-testing program.

1973 Wimbledon boycott

In May 1973 Nikola Pilić, Yugoslavia's number one tennis player, was suspended by his national lawn tennis association, who claimed he had refused to play in a Davis Cup tie for his country earlier that month.[3] The initial suspension of nine months, supported by the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF), was later reduced by the ILTF to one month which meant that Pilic would not be allowed to play at Wimbledon.[4] In response the ATP threatened a boycott, stating that if Pilić was not allowed to compete none should. After last-ditch attempts at a compromise failed the ATP voted in favor of a boycott and as a result 81 of the top players, including reigning champion Stan Smith and 13 of the 16 men's seeds, did not compete at the 1973 Wimbledon Championships.[5][6] Three ATP players, Ilie Năstase, Roger Taylor and Ray Keldie defied the boycott and were fined by the ATP's disciplinary committee.[4]

ATP Tour

But the tour was still run by the tournament directors and the ITF. The lack of player representation and influence within the MIPTC as well as dissatisfaction with the way the sport was managed and marketed culminated in a player mutiny in 1988 that changed the entire structure of the tour. CEO Hamilton Jordan is credited with the Parking Lot Press Conference on 30 August 1988 during which the ATP announced their withdrawal from the MIPTC (then called the MTC) and the creation of their own ATP Tour from 1990 onwards.[2][7][8][9] This re-organisation also ended a lawsuit with Volvo and Donald Dell.[10] On 19 January 1989 the ATP published the Tour calendar for the inaugural 1990 season.[11]

By 1991, the men had their first television package to broadcast 19 tournaments to the world.[2] Coming on-line with their first website in 1995, was quickly followed by a multi-year agreement with Mercedes-Benz.

Lawsuits in 2008, around virtually the same issues, resulted in a restructured tour.[12]

ATP World Tour tournaments

The ATP World Tour comprises ATP World Tour Masters 1000, ATP World Tour 500 series, ATP World Tour 250 series and ATP Challenger Tour. The ATP tour also oversees the ATP Champions Tour for seniors. Grand Slams (as well as the Olympic Tennis Tournament and Davis Cup) do not fall under the auspices of the ATP. In these events, however, ranking points are awarded.

Players and doubles teams with the most ranking points (collected during the calendar year) play in the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals, which, from 2000-2008, was run jointly with the International Tennis Federation (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 are:

Event category Number Total prize money (USD) Winner's ranking points Governing body Most single tites Most doubles titles
Grand Slam 4 See individual articles 2,000 ITF Switzerland Roger Federer (18) Australia John Newcombe (17)
ATP World Tour Finals 1 4,450,000 1,100–1,500 ATP (2009–present) Switzerland Roger Federer (6) United States Peter Fleming , United States John McEnroe (7)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 9 2,450,000 to 3,645,000 1000 ATP Serbia Novak Djokovic (30) United States Bob Bryan , United States Mike Bryan (36)
ATP World Tour 500 series 13 755,000 to 2,100,000 500 ATP Switzerland Roger Federer , Spain Rafael Nadal (17) Canada Daniel Nestor (20)
ATP World Tour 250 series 39 416,000 to 1,024,000 250 ATP Austria Thomas Muster (26) United States Bob Bryan , United States Mike Bryan (41)
ATP Challenger Tour 178 40,000 to 220,000 80 to 125 ATP ??? ???
ITF Men's Circuit 534 10,000 and 25,000 18 to 35 ITF ??? ???

2009 changes

In 2009, ATP introduced a new tour structure called ATP World Tour consisting of ATP World Tour Masters 1000, ATP World Tour 500, and ATP World Tour 250 tier tournaments.[13][14] Broadly speaking the Tennis Masters Series tournaments became the new Masters 1000 level and ATP International Series Gold and ATP International Series events became ATP 500 level and 250 level events respectively.

The Masters 1000 tournaments are Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Rome, Madrid, Toronto/Montreal, Cincinnati, Shanghai and Paris. The end-of-year event, the World Tour Finals, moved from Shanghai to London. Hamburg has been displaced by the new clay court event at Madrid, which is a new 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 Masters 1000 series events, unless medical proof is presented. Plans to eliminate Monte Carlo and Hamburg as Masters Series events led to controversy and protests from players as well as organisers. Hamburg and Monte Carlo filed lawsuits against the ATP,[15] and as a concession it was decided that Monte Carlo remains a Masters 1000 level event, with more prize money and 1000 ranking points, but it would no longer be a compulsory tournament for top-ranked players. Monte Carlo later dropped its suit. Hamburg was "reserved" to become a 500 level event in the summer.[16] Hamburg did not accept this concession, but later lost its suit.[17]

The 500 level includes tournaments at Rotterdam, Dubai, Rio, Acapulco, Barcelona, Hamburg, Washington, Beijing, Tokyo, Basel and Vienna.

The ATP & ITF have declared that Davis Cup World Group and World Group Playoffs award a total of up to 500 points. Players accumulate points over the 4 rounds and the playoffs and these are counted as one of a player's four best results from the 500 level events. An additional 125 points are given to a player who wins all 8 live rubbers and wins the Davis Cup. [18]

Additionally, the domain name of the ATP website was changed to "www.atpworldtour.com".[19]

Rankings

Main article: ATP Rankings

ATP publishes weekly rankings of professional players: Emirates ATP Rankings (commonly known as the ‘world rankings’), a 52-week rolling ranking, and the Emirates ATP Rankings Race to London, a year to date ranking.[20]

The ATP Rankings is used for determining qualification for entry and seeding in all tournaments for both singles and doubles. Within the ATP Rankings period consisting of the past year, points are accumulated, with the exception of those for the ATP World Tour Finals, 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.

The ATP Rankings Race To London is a calendar-year indicator of what the Emirates ATP Rankings will be on the Monday after the end of the regular season. Players finishing in the Top 8 of the Emirates ATP Rankings following the Paris Masters will qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals.

At the start of the 2009 season, all accumulated ranking points have been doubled to bring them in line with the new tournament ranking system.

Current rankings

Organizational structure

Chris Kermode is the current Executive Chairman and President of ATP, succeeding Brad Drewett who died of an illness on 3 May 2013.[21] Mark Young is the CEO of Americas, David Massey is the CEO of Europe while Alison Lee leads the International group.

The seven-member ATP Board of Directors includes the Executive Chairman & President along with three tournament representatives, Gavin Forbes, Mark Webster and Charles Smith. It also includes three player representatives with three-year terms, Giorgio di Palermo as the European representative, David Egdes as the International representative and Justin Gimelstob as the Americas representative. The player representatives are elected by the ATP Player Council.[22]

The 12-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 the top 50 in singles (Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic - President, Gilles Simon, and Kevin Anderson - Vice-President), two players who are ranked between 51 and 100 in singles (Yen-Hsun Lu and Rajeev Ram), two top 100 players in doubles (Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares), two at-large members (Marcelo Melo and Sergiy Stakhovsky), one alumni member (Colin Dowdeswell) and one coach (Claudio Pistolesi)[22][23]

The ATP Tournament Council consists of a total of 13 members, of which five are representatives from the European region along with four representatives from both the Americas and the International Group of tournaments.[22]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Posing 10 ATP questions for 2009".
  2. ^ a b c "How it all began". ATP. Retrieved 2013-04-11.
  3. ^ "Davis Cup Results". ITF. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  4. ^ a b John Barrett, ed. (1974). World of Tennis '74. London: Queen Anne. pp. 15–17, 45–47. ISBN 978-0362001686.
  5. ^ "Wimbledon faces 2004 boycott". BBC. 23 June 2004. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  6. ^ "The History of the Championships". AELTC. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
  7. ^ James Buddell (August 14, 2013). "The Tour Born in a Parking Lot - Part I". ATP.
  8. ^ Dwyre, Bill (2008-05-28). "Hamliton Jordan made Tennis better". LA Times. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
  9. ^ Frank Riley (2004-03-22). "The Formation of the Woman's Tennis Association". Inside Tennis. Archived from the original on October 3, 2011. Retrieved 2009-06-07. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ "Volvo v. MIPTC v. Volvo,Dell 1988". 1988. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
  11. ^ James Buddell (August 14, 2013). "The Tour Born in a Parking Lot - Part II". ATP.
  12. ^ "Court in Session: Hamburg, ATP go to trial". Tennis.com. 2008-07-23. Archived from the original on 2009-10-26. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ "ATP Unveils New Top Tier Of Events for 2009". Tenniswire.com. 31 August 2007. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 5 September 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ "ATP Unveils 2009, 2010 & 2011 Tour Calendars". ATP. 30 August 2008. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
  15. ^ "ATP Violates Antitrust Laws, Lawsuit Alleges". 9 April 2007. Archived from the original on April 30, 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ "Hamburg listed among second-tier events for 2009 season".
  17. ^ "ATP wins crucial anti-trust case". BBC News. 2008-08-06. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
  18. ^ ATPtennis.com - ITF and ATP Announce Dates and Ranking Points for Davis Cup by BNP Paribas
  19. ^ New Era Dawns For ATP World Tour ATP World Tour, 15 December 2008
  20. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". ATP World Tour.
  21. ^ "Tennis community pays tribute to Brad Drewett". ATP. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  22. ^ a b c "Organizational structure". ATP World Tour. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  23. ^ "ATP announces new Player Council". ATP. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
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