ATP NEWS

August 31, 2007
ATP Unveils New Top Tier Of Events For 2009

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2009 ATP Calendar New York, U.S.A. - The ATP, governing body of the men’s professional tennis circuit, announced today eight additional venues that have been awarded “1000” status for the new-look 2009 ATP Tour. The eight are Indian Wells, Miami, Rome, Madrid, Cincinnati, Canada, Shanghai and Paris. The “1000” tournaments will replace the existing Masters Series, and these eight tournaments will join the ninth “1000” event, Monte Carlo, to make up the top tier of the new ATP Tour structure.

The eight tournaments named will attract a mandatory player field, ensuring guaranteed top player participation at all events. The commitment will be backed by new rules and sanctions that include suspension for missed mandatory tournaments.

Launching in 2009, the ATP Tour will undergo its largest set of changes since its creation in 1990. As well as new tournaments and a record breaking level of prize money, the ATP will also introduce a new brand look and identity based on extensive consumer research and designed to make the Tour more fan friendly by linking tournaments to their winners ranking point levels of either “1000”, “500” or “250”.

The new look 2009 calendar will also ensure increased investment into men’s tennis. Between them the “1000” tournaments alone will bring over $500m of facility investment into new stadia builds or existing facility upgrade. The new builds include the spectacular Caja Magica in Madrid, the proposed new indoor arena in Paris and the recently completed Qi Zhong stadium in Shanghai.

“The 2009 ATP Tour is about the world’s best tennis players performing in the world’s very best stadiums at the right times of the season and we have now created a top tier that will showcase our sport, deliver substantially increased investment into our facilities and will attract more broadcast and sponsor support,” said Etienne de Villiers, Executive Chairman of the ATP. “Additionally, by creating more combined events we are taking the sport to a new level. I believe we now have a standard of top tier event that the sport, its players, its sponsors and above all its fans truly deserve.”

The ATP also announced that by 2011 six of the nine “1000” level tournaments will be combined events. Cincinnati and Rome will become combined ATP and WTA tournaments and in addition Canada will have the ATP and WTA tournaments running simultaneously in Toronto and Montreal.

The ATP Tour has continued to work closely on its plans with all branches of the sport. Larry Scott, Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Chairman said: "I applaud Etienne and the ATP Board for taking bold steps that are great for tennis. There is a shared vision for the future of our sport, including a focus on combined events at the top of both Tours."

In addition to the “1000s”, the ATP Board this week also announced that 22 applications have been received from tournaments wishing to become one of ten proposed events that will make up the second tier of the 2009 calendar – the “500s”. The successful applicants will be announced after further review.

Offering 500 points for each champion, the “500” level tournaments will attract increased prize money levels of $1m, will spark increased facility investment around the world and will attract more broadcasting partner opportunities globally.

The new look calendar, with revised scheduling and mini swings running into each Grand Slam and the ATP Tour Finals, will ensure the season is more understandable for fans and media, more appealing for sponsors and healthier for players. The 2009 calendar will be backed by a record multi million dollar global marketing and promotional spend. The final calendar will be announced in Shanghai at the Tennis Masters Cup.

The Tour will conclude in November 2009 at the new look ATP Tour Finals, to be held at the iconic O2 Arena in London.

I believe that without Federer's domination, all this would not have happened. This is an industry trying to cash in on the greatest player of all time. Borg started th popularity of the game, Federer he taking to a new level. DeVilliers' job is simply to maximise the profit. When Federer withdraws from the sport, the'll have to reajust.

I don't see the need for this change. First, Idon;t quite get this "9th" 1000 status of MC. Second, losing Hamburg as the only covered cay court is also a bit stupid...and the rest is only gimmicks.

As someone who enjoys the men's and women's games I'm looking forward to more combined events- Rome in particular will be reasonably accessible!

Woo- I hope they take me into consideration and schedule it during school holidays, otherwise I might have to let the children teach themselves!

By the way SG why are you advertising all those crap programs in your avatar? roflmao

I don't know if anyone has said this before, but the TMS calendar for 2008 (stripped away of all the hyperbolic literature) is as follows:

Indian Wells - hard
Miami - hard
Monte Carlo - clay
Rome - hard (yes - HARD :wacko: )
Madrid - clay
Canada - hard
Cincinnati - hard
Shanghai - hard
Paris - hard
London (Masters Cup) - hard

Poor old Hamburg, I suppose it always looked like the most likely to get the shove, although I thought that Paris or one of Cincinnati/Canada was just as deserving of the boot. Nor do I think that London needs another tournament. Most of all, I really don't understand why they should play Rome on hardcourts, will players who are in the clay court groove and used to sliding about be able to prepare properly or want to take it seriously? Also, unless they change the calendar for smaller tournaments dramatically there won't be any hardcourt tournaments within 2 months of Rome! If Monte Carlo is being phased out as a big one the pattern seems to be to get rid of natural surfaces altogether for the tournaments that count.

http://www.atptennis.com/en/news/2007/atp_...2009_cities.asp

Indian Wells and Miami back to back is simply a waste of time!

I can't see the interest to have 2 so identical tournies back to back if it's not to increase injuries chance to the players. I would have much preferred to have a covered clay like hamburg instead. I believe they were suing the ATP and wish them lots of success with it.

It does make you wonder the power of the surface manufacturers over the ATP. Look at the numbers of players who injured themselves at the USO this first week to realise that the game is taking the wong path.

The thing is while one can brand a HC, there is I believe no equivalent for grass and clay courts. Is this the reason? I cannot see any other for adopting harmful surfaces over more gente ones.

Rafa was complaining about it the other day....rightly so.

Im kinda baffled :wacko: why Rome is a hardcourt event WTF? :shrug:

sorry, stupid question time: didn't one of the masters used to be played on carpet? :unsure:

Some of these changes seem a good idea, but having a hard court tournament in the middle of the clay court season? Also does this mean that the 1000 series of events will be worth the same amount of rankings points as the grand slams? If so, I think that's wrong the grand slams are the jewels in the crown, and should be rewarded with more rankings points to reflect that.

I can't believe that Rome is a hardcourt, I just assumed it would be clay!

Did they play Paris on Carpet at times?

have just checked the ATP website and Paris is on carpet this year. i thought they'd played Madrid on carpet at some point as well, but it's entirely possible that i might be mistaken.

Why not have a grass masters event? :rolleyes:

i'm assuming btw Barry that you mean the calender for 2009..... :unsure:

I do believe the ATP gets money from surface manufacturers for promoting their brands and this is one reason we see the natural surfaces disappearing in favour of synthetic ones.

You can't sell a grass or clay court but you can make a deal with Decoturf.

Am I too cinical?

yes, but you're probably right.

I'm assuming that part of the reason for moving away from some of the old European tournaments is because the American venues are bigger and therefore they can sell more tickets. I assume Shanghai will have a big spangly tennis arena, and same for the o2 arena?? :unsure:

money makes the world go round........ :blink:

I think that might have something to do with it! :angry:
I appreciate that there are issues with grass for training purposes - they are not very economically viable for most clubs to maintain, so grass has taken up the role of a niche surface. It is more of a novelty than anything now, which is a huge shame. Most countries come under enormous pressure to produce champions (because that, in turn, improves tennis at the grass roots and has a knock-on effect into facilities etc) and therefore encourage clubs (with use of grants, rebates etc) to lay grand slam surface courts. The easiest to maintain for clubs that are often council owned and run by volunteers would be hard courts, so clay and grass only really become feasible for high performance centres, niche clubs and the like. It follows on that clubs are influenced by major tournaments and by what court surfaces they can manage, the common denominator being hardcourts. This factor means that competition in the hardcourt market increases and that tournaments and large venues (and organisers, perhaps) will get very favourable deals from manufacturers because of the influence on clubs (training facilities) for the mass market.
Sorry for the long post. Hope it helps. :)

Goodness - I must have done :crazy1:

:blush: sorry, didn't mean to point out your typo....... :hug: I just got all confused,. wanted to check i wasn't missing something :wacko: