Venue The O2 Arena Surface Hard / indoors | Category World Tour Finals Draw 8S / 8D | |
Founded 1970; 47 years ago (1970) Location London
United Kingdom (2009–2018) | ||
The ATP World Tour Finals (also known as the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals for sponsorship reasons) is the second highest tier of men's tennis tournament after the four Grand Slam tournaments.
Contents
It is held annually in November at the O2 Arena in London, United Kingdom. The ATP World Tour Finals are the season-ending championships of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) World Tour, featuring the top eight singles players and doubles teams of the ATP Rankings. The tournament was first held in 1970.
Roger Federer holds the record for the most singles titles, with six,while Peter Fleming and John McEnroe hold record with 7 titles in doubles.
In the current tournament, winners are awarded up to 1500 rankings points; with each round-robin loss, 200 points are deducted from that amount.
History
The event is the fourth evolution of a championship which began in 1970. It was originally known as the Masters Grand Prix and was part of the Grand Prix Tennis Circuit. It was organised by the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) ITF. It ran alongside the competing WCT Finals the other season ending championships for the rival World Championship Tennis Tour. The Masters was a year-end showpiece event between the best players on the men's tour, but did not count for any world ranking points.
In 1990, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) took over the running of the men's tour and replaced the Masters with the ATP Tour World Championship. World ranking points were now at stake, with an undefeated champion earning the same number of points they would for winning one of the four Grand Slam events. The ITF, who continued to run the Grand Slam tournaments, created a rival year-end event known as the Grand Slam Cup, which was contested by the 16 players with the best records in Grand Slam competitions that year.
In December 1999, the ATP and ITF agreed to discontinue the two separate events and create a new jointly-owned event called the Tennis Masters Cup. As with the Masters Grand Prix and the ATP Tour World Championships, the Tennis Masters Cup was contested by eight players. However, player who is ranked number eight in the ATP Champion's Race world rankings does not have a guaranteed spot. If a player who wins one of the year's Grand Slam events finishes the year ranked outside the top eight but still within the top 20, he is included in the Tennis Masters Cup instead of the eighth-ranked player. If two players outside the top eight win Grand Slam events, the higher placed player in the world rankings takes the final spot in the Tennis Masters Cup.
In 2009 the Masters was renamed to the ATP World Tour Finals and got scheduled to be held at The O2 in London from 2009 to 2013. In 2012 the organisers extended the contract by two years up to 2015.In 2015 the contract was extended again for three years up to 2018.
For many years, the doubles event was held as a separate tournament the week after the singles competition, but more recently they have been held together in the same week and venue.
For most of its history, the event has been considered as the most important indoor tennis tournament on the world tour (there were a few exceptions, when the event was organized outdoors: 1974 Melbourne & 2003–2004 Houston), allowing for controlled conditions of play, regarding both surface type and illumination system.
Qualification
There are eight players or teams, and playing is mandatory except for injury or other good cause.
Qualification is as follows:
(a) the top seven players in the ATP rankings (b) up to two grand slam winners ranked between 8 and 20 (in order of ATP ranking, if any such players exist) (c) the next players in the ATP rankings, until the quota of eight is reached.
Points, prize money and trophies
The ATP World Tour Finals currently (2016) rewards the following points and prize money, per victory:
There is also an appearance fee of $179,000 singles, and $88,000 per doubles team. The two alternates are paid $100,000 (singles) and $34,000 (doubles teams).
An undefeated champion would earn the maximum 1,500 points, and $2,391,000 in singles or $455,000 in doubles.
In addition, prizes include the Barclays ATP Singles and Doubles World Tour Finals Trophies and the ATP Tour World No.1 Trophy, all made by London-based silversmiths Thomas Lyte .
Format
Unlike all other singles events on the men's tour, the ATP World Tour Finals is not a straightforward knock-out tournament. Eight players are divided into two groups of four and play three round-robin matches each against the other players in their group. The two players with the best records in each group progress to the semifinals, with the winners meeting in the final to determine the champion. Though it is theoretically possible to advance to the semi-finals of the tournament with two round-robin losses, no player in the history of the singles tournament has won the title after losing more than one round-robin match.
The current round robin format of two groups of four players progressing to a semifinal and final, has been in place for all editions of the tournament except the following years:
Sponsors
The tournament has traditionally been sponsored by the title sponsor of the tour; however, from 1990–2008 the competition was non-sponsored, even though the singles portion of the event as part of the ATP tour was sponsored by IBM. In 2009, the tournament gained Barclays PLC as title sponsor. Barclays confirmed in 2015 that they would not renew their sponsorship deal once it expires in 2016.
Records
Most single titles:
Most doubles titles:
Most Appearances:
- Roger Federer, 14 (2002–2015)
- Andre Agassi, 13 (1988–1991, 1994, 1996, 1998–2003, 2005)
- Ivan Lendl, 12 (1980–1991)
- Boris Becker, 11 (1985–1992, 1994–1996)
Jimmy Connors, 11 (1972–1973, 1977–1984, 1987)
Pete Sampras, 11 (1990–2000)