ATP is the Association of Tennis Professionals which was formed in 1972. This was formed to protect the interests of male professional tennis players. “Open Tennis” began in 1968 and since then tennis has come a long way and ATP has been an active part of this history.
Prior to 1968, the Grand Slam tournaments and all other National Championships were available to amateur competitors. In 1970, all the tournaments worldwide formed a unified circuit to form, what was called as Grand Prix. It was in 1972, when the leading professionals joined hands to create ATP. Since 1990, ATP is organizing principal tennis tours for men worldwide. It was known as ATP Tour and was renamed in January 2009 as ATP World Tour.
The Executive Offices of the ATP are in London, England; ATP Europe is based in Monaco; ATP Americas is based in Florida, USA; and the ATP International which consists of Asia, Africa and Australasia is located in Sydney, Australia. The ATP Tour comprises of 4 Grand Slams, 1 ATP World Tour Finals, 9 ATP World Tour Masters 1000, 11 ATP World Tour 500 Series, 40 ATP World Tour 250 Series, 1 ATP World Team Cup, 178 ATP Challenger Series and 534 Futures Tournament. There are points as well as prize money for each tournament-
|
Event Category |
Number of Tournaments |
Winner’s Ranking Points |
Governing Body |
|
Grand Slams |
4 |
2,000 |
ITF |
|
ATP World Tour Finals |
1 |
1100-1500 |
ITF & ATP |
|
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 |
9 |
1000 |
ATP |
|
ATP World Tour 500 Series |
11 |
500 |
ATP |
|
ATP World Tour 250 Series |
40 |
250 |
ATP |
|
ATP Challenger Series |
178 |
75-125 |
ATP |
|
Futures Tournament |
534 |
17-33 |
ITF |
The Grand Slams includes tournaments- Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open. The Masters 1000 includes tournaments at Cincinnati, Indian Wells, Madrid, Miami, Monte-Carlo, Paris, Rome, Shanghai, and Toronto. Madrid is a combined men’s and women’s tournament and from 2011, Rome and Cincinnati will also be combined tournaments. The ATP 500 series includes tournaments at Acapulco, Barcelona, Basel, Beijing, Dubai, Hamburg, Memphis, Rotterdam, Tokyo, Valencia, and Washington.
The ATP 250 includes tournaments at Atlanta, Auckland, Bangkok, Bastad, Belgrade, Brisbane, Bucharest, Buenos Aires, Casablanca, Chennai, Costa Do Sauipe, Delray Beach, Doha, Eastbourne, Estoril, Gstaad, Halle, Houston, Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur, London, Los Angeles, Lyon, Marseille, Metz, Moscow, Munich, New Haven, Newport, Nice, San Jose, Santiago, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Sydney, Umag, Vienna and Zagreb.
ATP also publishes weekly rankings of professional players, known as the ATP Race.