The ATP determines the rules for ATP tournaments and determines the points allocation for all men’s professional events” (ITF World Tennis Tour).Ī professional tennis player’s ability to enter tournaments is determined by their position in the rankings. “The ATP is the governing body of the men’s professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour and the ATP Challenger Tour. The ATP rankings list is the gold standard when it comes to men’s tennis. Each one of these events has a different point distribution system.

The ATP is in charge of the men’s ATP Tour and Challenger Tour and the WTA takes the lead on the women’s side, putting together the WTA Premier Mandatory, WTA Premier 5, WTA Premier, WTA International and WTA 125K events. The ITF hosts the Grand Slams and the ITF World Tour Circuit for both men and women. The number of points earned by the player depends on the round the player loses.

In order to earn ranking points, tennis players must participate in events hosted by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the ATP, and the WTA. Tennis rankings work based on a points system that adds up players’ 18 best results in the previous 52 weeks. Because tennis is an individual sport, players do not get hired by a team or club (like the NBA, NFL, NHL, Soccer/Football Clubs, etc) so it can be quite difficult to understand the path players need to take in order to reach the top of the rankings. When you are a professional tennis player, you often get asked “how do you become a professional tennis player?”.

Wta live tennis rankings