Since 1968 the first "Tennis Open", tennis has experienced a long development. ATP is also an indispensable part of this history. Before 1968, Grand Slam events and other national events were only open to amateur tennis players. Two years later, tennis tournaments around the world formed a unified organization, called the Grand Prix. 1972, a group of tennis pioneers Qi Xin co-founded the Professional Tennis Association. ATP mark.
[1] Another decisive move in ATP history was born. During the US Open, a group of top players in the competition field discussed the establishment of a players' association in a secluded yard. Under the leadership of Jack Kramer as the first managing director and chairman, ATP began to organize better football matches. The first task of this organization is to establish a computer ranking system to analyze the performance of players and an objective method to determine whether players are qualified to participate in the competition. ATP ranking began on August 23rd, 1973, and it is still the official ranking system of men's professional tennis. 1974- 1989 the men's world tour tennis tournament is managed by the international men's professional tennis Council, which is composed of representatives of the international tennis Federation composed of ATP and tournament directors from all over the world. Although MTC has made great progress and promotion in the tournament, the players began to realize that they were on the court. They are beginning to realize that it is time to take more initiative on the court. During the 1988 US Open, ATP President Hamilton Jordan (pictured) held a press conference at the parking station and was greeted by many top players. This speech "Tennis-The Crossroads of Dilemma" summarizes the difficulties and opportunities that men's tennis faces. For ATP, creating a new tournament, ATP World Tour, has become one of the ways to solve the problem. The implementation of the new competition system quickly received a positive response from more than 85 players among the top 65,438+000 players in the world at that time, and they jointly signed a letter supporting the new competition system. 1In the autumn of 1988, 24 players, including 8 top 10 players in the world, signed up for the 1990 ATP World Tour. In the autumn of the same year, the tournament director issued a statement on behalf of many leading tournaments in the world, expressing his support for players and joining them, becoming a unique partnership in the field of professional sports, that is, players and tournaments should each have an equal say in the operation of the new tournament system. The 2009 season marks the 20-year storm that ATP is in charge of the world men's professional tennis championship. Now let's review the shining pen in this course: 1973: ATP has established a computer ranking system in order to analyze players' performance on the court fairly and justly, creating an objective way to determine whether players are eligible for direct election. On August 23rd, Yili Nastase won the first place in the world and the ATP ranking system was put into use for the first time. Other measures include the promotion of sports events by sports event representatives and the establishment of standardized bonus distribution, sports event management and discipline standards. After the players boycotted Wimbledon to show their support for Nicky Piric (Nicky Piric was suspended by Yugoslavia for missing the Davis Cup), ATP has demonstrated its ability to handle the incident. 1974 The International Men's Professional Tennis Council, composed of ATP, lawn tennis and tournament director, is determined to develop tennis into an independent, democratic and international organization for managing professional competitions. 1976: Bob Hewitt won the championship, and the ATP doubles computer ranking system officially started running on March 1. 1978: The Davis Cup was held in Dü sseldorf for eight teams, which was the first world team world cup. 1979: The men's world tour hired the full-time managers of the International Men's Professional Tennis Council, and Payne was the official match ball. The breakthrough is that in the past 2 1 year, as sponsors of the US Tennis Championships, four China players participated in the ATP-sponsored US Tennis Championships. 1980: ATP establishes player insurance fund. 1983: ATP has nearly 500 members. 1985: At the request of ATP, the International Men's Professional Tennis Council adopted a regulation on drug testing, making ATP the first professional sports event with feasible and comprehensive drug testing items in the world 1986: In order to establish a coherent competition schedule, the International Men's Professional Tennis Council postponed the Australian Open for one month to 101. And the Masters will be held in198665438+February one month in advance. 1988: During the U.S. Open, the players held a press conference in the parking lot at the instigation of ATP President Hamilton Jordan, claiming that the players needed to occupy more control in the game. At the meeting of "Tennis at the Crossroads", a plan was put forward to establish a new competition system for players, who will play an important role in the development of the game and take on more responsibilities. A week after the press conference, 85 world-class 100 players signed a letter to support the new competition system. The tournament director made a statement on behalf of many leading events in the world, expressing his support for the players and will join them, thus becoming a unique partner in the field of professional sports. Players and competitions should have an equal say in the operation of the new competition system. 1989: The top 50 players in the ATP world signed a contract and agreed to participate in the new ATP World Men's Professional Tennis Tour launched by 1990. Considering the eight-week off-season, the tournament schedule will be rescheduled. 1990: The ATP World Men's Professional Tennis Tour was sponsored by IBM, which opened a new era in which players and events were sponsored by the same company. The tournament will be held in 28 countries on seven continents with 76 competitions. The prize money of the competition increased by 50% on average. Michael Mi Le, tournament director of Indianapolis Championship, is the executive director of ATP. 199 1: The TV station broadcasts the 19 ATP men's race to the global audience for the first time. 1993: The ATP Tour has added more match points around the world and two ATP Tour stops in Arabian Gulf, one in Doha and the other in Dubai. The tournament prize money has also increased by 23%. 1995: The ATP Tennis Tour released the ATP Web website and ATP online platform for the first time, and invited the then pop singer Seal to record the theme song "Go Forward" to further expand its influence. The theme song was sung at the ATP Tennis Tour Awards Ceremony, and another song "Starry Night" 1996 was presented at the ATP World Championship in Hanover: Mercedes-Benz signed a four-year sponsorship agreement with ATP. As the official car of ATP, Mercedes-Benz provides official cars for all ATP events. During the event, the top products of Mercedes-Benz will be displayed to the public, and the Trident Star logo of Mercedes-Benz will also appear in China Net. 1997: ATP Champions Tour Station officially started. 1998: The star party organized by the stars provides ATP players with more opportunities to contact the media, sponsors and fans. ATP has sold the right to broadcast football matches to more than 200 countries. 2000: 200 1, "ATP Tour" was renamed ATP, and a new special logo was adopted. At the same time, nine top events were renamed "ATP Masters Series". 20065438+0: As a brand-new publishing website, ATP Tennis official website has adopted a brand-new competition system structure, focusing on the regional planning, business focus and new market planning, brand authorization and live TV opportunities of ATP events. 2002: Players increase their popularity through TV broadcasts and popular magazines, and ATP also publishes an official publication: DEUCE magazine. ATP cooperated with WTA in a project called "One Game" to encourage more professional fans to join. 2005: In June, De Villier was appointed as the chairman of ATP. After the Indian Ocean tsunami, with the mobilization of roger federer, the world's number one player, various stars actively raised money for tsunami victims by donating competition bonuses and organizing a charity tournament-"ATP All-Star Rally for Disaster Relief". At the fund-raising meeting, ATP established a global partnership named ACE with UNICEF to help children all over the world. 2006: De Villier became the executive chairman and president of ATP. ATP has signed cooperation agreements with some major sponsors, including opening South African Airlines as the official airline of ATP. Based on the accumulated support of doubles stars and the exposure in "ATP doubles reform" activities and event planning, Stanford Financial Group and ATP doubles officials became partners. The challenge was first broadcast in Miami and successfully demonstrated in the 65,438+03 tournament. 2007: In order to present more passionate competition experience to fans, media and players, ATP revised the competition system, including canceling the rule of best of five sets and reducing the number of seats in five ATP Masters series, thus ensuring the health of 56 players and increasing TV programs; The first week of ATP competition can start on Sunday. ATP has raised its bonus for the first time since 2000 and set up a multi-million-dollar marketing fund. ATP makes persistent efforts in marketing, encouraging fans to re-understand the events and ATP's "doubles rules". Through this move, the number of live viewers exceeded 4 million, the length of TV broadcast was lengthened, and the number of TV viewers broke the record, which brought 15% revenue growth. 2008: Nadal, Federer and Djokovic, the top three players in the world, are all major members of the ATP Players Association. Federer also serves as the president of the Players' Association. This is the first time in history that the top three players in the world have been elected to the association for two consecutive years. The world tennis organization, including the Women's Professional Tennis Association, the International Tennis Federation, the Men's Professional Tennis Association and the Grand Slam Committee, will become a complete federation. In the 2008 season, ATP feels that its tennis promotion activities will be vigorously carried out. Barclays Bank signed a new agreement with the organizers of the event, thus becoming the title sponsor of the 2009 ATP World Tour Finals. The organizers of the event will re-establish cooperative relations with South African Airlines, Ricoh of Japan and Electricite Italia. The 2009: 2009ATP World Tour debuted with a simple and clear competition structure, which made reasonable and more favorable arrangements for the players, and will also bring infrastructure and equipment upgrades costing one billion yuan. The new points calculation system will be put into use in the ATP South Africa Aviation World Ranking, and different levels of events will be distinguished by the event names: ATP 1000 Masters, ATP World Tour 500 and ATP World Tour 250.