| Association of Tennis Professionals ATP |
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| Sport | Professional Tennis |
| Formation date | 1972 |
| Location | London Monaco Ponte Vedra Beach Sydney |
| Chairman | Adam Helfant |
| Chief Exec | Brad Drewett |
| Official website | |
| www.atpworldtour.com | |
The Association of Tennis Professionals or ATP was formed in 1972 to protect the interests of male professional tennis players. Since 1990, the association has organized the principal worldwide tennis tour for men, the ATP Tour, which was renamed in January 2009 and is now known as the ATP World Tour. It is an evolution of the tour competitions previously known as World Championship Tennis. The ATP's Executive Offices are in London, England. ATP Americas is based in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, USA; 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.
Contents |
History
Started in 1972 by several players, it was first managed by Jack Kramer and Cliff Drysdale.[1] The organization was integral in creating professional players' rankings 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 Tennis Council. 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 Men's International Pro Tennis Council (MIPTC) to introduce a drug testing rule, making tennis the first professional sport to institute a workable and well-designed drug-testing program.
But the tour was still run by the tournament directors. The lack of player representation culminated in a player mutiny in 1988 changing the entire structure of the tour. CEO Hamilton Jordan is credited with the now infamous "Parking Lot Press Conference" resulting in their own ATP Tour.[1][2][3] This re-organization also ended a lawsuit with Volvo and Donald Dell.[4]
By 1991, the men had their first television package to broadcast 19 tournaments to the world.[1] 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.[5]
ATP Tour
The ATP Tour comprises Grand Slams, ATP World Tour Masters 1000, ATP World Tour 500 series, ATP World Tour 250 series, ATP Challenger Series, and Futures tournaments. The ATP tour also oversees the World Team Cup, played in Düsseldorf in May, and the ATP Champions Tour for seniors.
Players and doubles teams with most ranking points (collected during the calendar year) 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 are:
| Event category | Number | Total prize money (USD) | Winner's ranking points | Governing body |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Slams | 4 | See individual articles | 2,000 | ITF |
| ATP World Tour Finals | 1 | 4,450,000 | 1100-1500 | ATP & ITF |
| ATP World Tour Masters 1000 | 9 | 2,450,000 to 3,450,000 | 1000 | ATP |
| ATP 500 | 11 | 755,000 to 1,426,250 | 500 | ATP |
| ATP 250 | 40 | 416,000 to 1,000,000 | 250 | ATP |
| ATP World Team Cup | 1 | 1,750,000 | - | ATP |
| ATP Challenger Series | 178 | 35,000 to 150,000 | 75 to 125 | ATP |
| Futures | 534 | 10,000 and 15,000 | 17 to 33 | ITF |
2009 changes
ATP World Tour tournaments in 2009 are classified as ATP World Tour Masters 1000, ATP World Tour 500, and ATP World Tour 250. Broadly speaking the Masters Series tournaments became the new Masters 1000 level and the international series (gold) events became 500 level and 250 level events.
The Masters 1000 includes tournaments at Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Rome, Madrid, Toronto/Montreal, Cincinnati, Shanghai and Paris. The end-of-year event, the Tour Finals, moved 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.[6] Plans to eliminate Monte Carlo and Hamburg as Masters Series events led to controversy and protests from players as well as organizers. Hamburg and Monte Carlo filed lawsuits against the ATP,[7] 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.[8] Hamburg did not accept this concession, but later lost its suit.[9].
The 500 level includes tournaments at Rotterdam, Dubai, Acapulco, Memphis, Barcelona, Hamburg, Washington, Beijing, Tokyo, Basel and Valencia.
The ATP & ITF have declared that 2009 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. [10]
Otherwise, the domain name of their website was changed to "www.atpworldtour.com".[11]
Rankings
ATP publishes weekly rankings of professional players, ATP Entry Ranking, a 52-week rolling ranking and until 2009, the ATP Race, a year to date ranking. The Entry Ranking is used for determining qualification for entry and seeding in all tournaments for both singles and doubles. Within the Entry Ranking period consisting of the past 52 weeks, points are accumulated, with the exception of those 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. 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.
ATP Race was an annual race from season start to season end but was discontinued beginning in 2009[12]. Every player would start collecting points from the beginning of the season. At the end of the season, the ATP Race determined which players and teams (first eight for singles and first four for doubles) can compete in the Tennis Masters Cup, now called the World Tour Finals.
Current Rankings
| as of October 26, 2009 [13] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Player | Points | Prev | Move |
| 1 |  Roger Federer |
10305 | 1 | ▬ = |
| 2 |  Rafael Nadal |
9095 | 2 | ▬ = |
| 3 |  Novak Djokovic |
7950 | 3 | ▬ = |
| 4 |  Andy Murray |
6890 | 4 | ▬ = |
| 5 |  Juan Martín del Potro |
6165 | 5 | ▬ = |
| 6 |  Nikolay Davydenko |
4700 | 6 | ▬ = |
| 7 |  Andy Roddick |
4660 | 7 | ▬ = |
| 8 |  Jo-Wilfried Tsonga |
3930 | 8 | ▬ = |
| 9 | Fernando Verdasco |
3330 | 9 | ▬ = |
| 10 |  Robin Söderling |
2900 | 10 | ▬ = |
| 11 |  Fernando González |
2780 | 11 | ▬ = |
| 12 | Gilles Simon |
2655 | 12 | ▬ = |
| 13 |  Marin Čilić |
2355 | 13 | ▬ = |
| 14 |  Radek Štěpánek |
2165 | 14 | ▬ = |
| 15 | Gaël Monfils |
2125 | 15 | ▬ = |
| 16 | Tommy Robredo |
2110 | 16 | ▬ = |
| 17 |  Tommy Haas |
1845 | 17 | ▬ = |
| 18 | David Ferrer |
1805 | 18 | ▬ = |
| 19 | Tomáš Berdych |
1760 | 19 | ▬ = |
| 20 |  Lleyton Hewitt |
1600 | 22 | ▲ 2 |
Staff
Adam Helfant 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 Adam Helfant along with tournament representatives, Željko Franulović, Charlie Pasarell and Graham Pearce. It also includes three player representatives with two-year terms, Ivan Ljubičić as the European representative (until the end of 2009 term), David Edges as the International representative and Justin Gimelstob 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 (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and a vacancy), two players who are ranked between 51 and 100 in singles (Peter Luczak and Michael Berrer), two top 100 players in doubles (Yves Allegro and Eric Butorac) and two at-large members (David Martin and Martín García).
See also
- 2009 ATP World Tour
- 2009 ATP Challenger Tour
- ATP Champions Tour
- International Tennis Federation
- Women's Tennis Association
- World Championship Tennis
- Grand Prix tennis tournaments
- ATP World Tour Awards
- ATP World Tour records
- List of ATP number 1 ranked players
- Tennis statistics
- Tennis male players statistics
References
- ^ a b c "How it all began". ATP. http://www.atpworldtour.com/tennis/en/aboutatp/history.asp. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
- ^ "Hamliton Jordan made Tennis better". LA Times. 2008-05-28. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/may/27/sports/sp-dwyre27. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
- ^ Frank Riley (2004-03-22). "The Formation of the Woman's Tennis Association". Inside Tennis. http://www.inside-tennis.net/tennis-stories_10_The-Formation-of-the-Womans-Tennis-Association.html. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
- ^ "Volvo v. MIPTC v. Volvo,Dell 1988". 1988. http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/839/839.F2d.69.87-7784.87-7778.87-7776.html. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
- ^ "Court in Session: Hamburg, ATP go to trial". Tennis.com. 2008-07-23. http://www.tennis.com/features/general/features.aspx?id=140358.
- ^ ATPtennis.com - ATP Unveils New Top Tier Of Events For 2009
- ^ http://montecarlo.masters-series.com/3/en/news/2007/lawsuit.asp
- ^ http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=3048762
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/7515523.stm
- ^ ATPtennis.com - ITF and ATP Announce Dates and Ranking Points for Davis Cup by BNP Paribas
- ^ New Era Dawns For ATP World TourATP World Tour, 15th December 2008
- ^ http://www.atpworldtour.com/tennis/en/players/information/rankfaq.asp
- ^ "Current ATP Rankings (singles)". atpworldtour.com. Association of Tennis Professionals. http://www.atpworldtour.com/tennis/3/en/rankings/entrysystem/default.asp.
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