Women's Tennis Association
The Women's Tennis Association ( WTA ) is the association of professional tennis players. It is thus the counterpart of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP ) of the men. About WTA and ATP is the International Tennis Federation ( ITF), which defines the rules of the game.
History
The WTA was founded in 1970 as Virginia Slim Series, there was considerable variation in the prize money for men and women in tennis. In September 1970 signed nine players, the so-called original 9, a contract for one U.S. dollar with Gladys Heldman, publisher of World Tennis Magazine of. The players were Billie Jean King, Rosie Casals, Nancy Richey, Kerry Melville, Peaches Bartkowicz, Kristy Pigeon, Judy Dalton, Valerie Ziegenfuss and Julie Heldman. The contract entitled the players in the Virginia Slims Series to compete. 1971 was the first official season of the tour, the 19 tournaments have been played. This year, Billie Jean King became the first professional player more than $ 100,000 in a season. King was also in London today WTA founded in 1973. In the same year, the Tournament Director of the U.S. Open paid the players for the first time the same amount of prize money as the men. 1974 signed the WTA for the first time a contract for the transfer of rights in television with CBS. With Chris Evert at position 1 - - 1975 Women's World Ranking was introduced. The placement of the players was from now on a criterion for admission to tournaments. 1980 already played more than 250 women's tournament series, which included 47 tournaments worldwide. Martina Navratilova in 1982 won the first player over 1 million U.S. dollars in prize money in one season.
Organization
The WTA currently operates two other so-called Head Quarters except the corporate headquarters in St. Petersburg, they are the the European Headquarters in London and the Asia- Pacific headquarters in Beijing. Chairman and Managing Director is Stacey Allaster. She was since 2006 as president of the WTA Tour and was promoted to Managing Director in 2009. Vice President Laurence Applebaum.
WTA Tour
Main article: WTA Tour
Organised by the WTA women's tennis series is called the WTA Tour, the members of the most professional tournaments. The most important tournament, the WTA Tour Championships. The "ordinary" of the WTA Tour tournaments are divided into different classes (English " animal "); by 2008 these were, from bottom to top, Tier I to Tier V. Since the 2009 reform, which took effect five animal classes were replaced by the four " categories " International, Premier, Premier 5, and Premier Mandatory.
The Grand Slam tournaments and the Fed Cup are not part of the WTA Tour, as they are organized by the ITF.
World Ranking
Main article: Tennis World Ranking
The WTA leads the points rankings for the tennis world rankings of women. To be guided there, must complete and points have accumulated at least three tournaments a player over 14 years old. The world ranking is updated every Monday ( except during the two-week Grand Slam tournaments). The points scored in a tournament depends on which round has reached a player.
The first world number one was on November 3, 1975 Chris Evert. With 377 weeks Steffi Graf is the one player who has the longest led the world tennis rankings. The youngest ever world number one Martina Hingis was. A total of 21 different players so far stood at the top of the rankings, the latest entrant in this county was in January 2012, the Belarusian Azarenka Wiktoryja.
Records
Still active players are in bold.
Most singles titles
Most doubles title
Oldest winner of a single - track
Recent winner of a title
Purse
In 2013 ( at 28 October 2013) earned a total of 22 players over 1,000,000 U.S. dollars, as many players as yet in any season before. The American Serena Williams put in your outstanding 2013 season with a total prize money of 12,385,572 U.S. dollars on a new earnings record in tournament prize money in women's tennis.
See
- Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP)
- International Tennis Federation ( ITF)
- Tennis Europe (TE )