Tennis tour
Tennis Pro Tours .A tennis tour (or tennis circuit) is single-loss elimination .
Current professional tour tennisCurrently professional male tennis players compete in one of three tours, while there are two tours for female pro players. The highest level of tour tennis is the WTA ranking .
Female players are free to play in events in either tour, although top-ranked players almost always play just in WTA Tour events. In fact, they are obliged to appear in certain of the most prestigious tournaments and in a certain number of these during the year or face being penalized by the tour. The same is true of male players. For singles tennis, both men and women ranked outside of the world top 40 or so and inside the top 180 or so will compete in both the top and second tier tour events. For male players, those ranked outside of the top 180 will then compete on both the ATP Challenger Tour and ITF Men's Circuit, while most players ranked outside the top 400 or so must compete on the ITF Men's Circuit. (A few players, despite their ranking, have a certain personal stature that allows them to be granted wild cards into tournaments. It may be that they were once ranked higher or have a certain level of fame, either globally or where the tournament is being held.) A ranking cut-off is maintained that varies for each tournament - players ranked above the cut-off gain direct entry in that event's match tiebreaks. A few tournaments, notably the season-ending championship, feature round-robin play where players play initially in a mini-league instead of in the typical single-loss elimination. Generally in such events however, the final few rounds are still played in the typical knock-out format.
The ATP and WTA tours generally hold more than one tournament each week, while the ITF circuits, which oversees several events weekly, hold a few events during the month of December, the top tier tours' off-season. Grand slam playGrand slam tournament play is unique in that, for men, matches are best three of five sets, and that both female and male players do not play singles (or doubles) matches in consecutive days, barring inclement weather or other unforeseen scheduling issues. The fields are expanded as one hundred twenty-eight singles players and 64 doubles teams are featured in the main draws.
Previous world tennis toursMen'sPrior to 1990 professional men's tour tennis consisted of two competing tennis circuits, the open tennis , being in 1968. By 1973, computer rankings were established for singles tennis. (Computer rankings for doubles tennis was begun in the early 1980s.)
By the 1980s, the Grand Prix tour was the main men's tennis tour, while WCT events were in certain years even part of the Grand Prix circuit. In 1990, all top tier tour events became part of the ATP Tour as the Association of Tennis Professionals took control of professional tour tennis from the ITF's Men's Tennis Council. satellite tournaments , a mini-circuit typically held over a four-week period at one location. By 2007 satellite events were entirely phased out on the ITF Men's Circuit.
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