Association of Tennis Professionals
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the association of professional male tennis players, it is thus the counterpart to the Women's Tennis Association ( WTA ). About ATP and WTA is still the International Tennis Federation ( ITF), which determines the rules of the game.
History
The ATP was founded in 1972 to resolve conflicts within the men's tennis and to be able to make the game more marketable. The founding members were Jack Kramer, Donald Dell, and Cliff Drysdale, the latter became the first president. Kramer held the post of Executive Directors. Until 1988, the ongoing tour was mainly determined by the tournament directors, which ultimately resulted in a player boycott. The former CEO of ATP, Hamilton Jordan, held as part of the U.S. Open in 1988 as a " press conference in the parking lot " ( German press conference in the parking lot ) famous speech, whose result was the foundation of today's ATP Tour.
ATP World Tour
The ATP organized the so-called ATP World Tour, a men's tennis series. Most professional tournaments are part of it. The most important belonging to the ATP Tour tournaments are the nine Masters Series tournaments. The Grand Slam tournaments and the Davis Cup are not part of the ATP Tour, as they are organized by the ITF. The ATP World Tour Finals at the end of each season organized jointly by ATP and ITF.
ATP Challenger Tour
ATP Champions Tour
World Ranking
Since its inception, the ATP also leads the points rankings of players. Formerly known as Tennis World Ranking system regulates Entry and start authorization seedings at the tournaments. Points earned in each of the last 52 weeks ( ie, the current -year period ) are included in this classification. Since this system is, however, difficult to survey for the broad masses of tennis fans, there are in addition to the so-called Champions Race since 2000. Here, catch the beginning of the season all players from scratch - a system that is already known, for example from Formula 1.
Organization
Was president from 2012 Brad Drewett ( official name: Executive Chairman / President ), he was the successor of Adam Helfant. The post became vacant first after Drewett died in May 2013. 1 January 2014, Chris Kermode succeeds Drewetts. The President is formally before the seven-member board of directors. He also has (currently Mark Webster, Gavin Forbes and Graham Pearce ) and three player representatives (currently Justin Gimelstob, David Edges and Giorgio di Palermo) on three tournament representatives.
In addition to the Board of Directors consists of eleven players, the Council and the thirteen -member Council Tournament.