The ITF Grand Prix Circuit was a professional tennis tour for male players founded in 1970 as the ILTF Grand Prix Tennis Circuit it ran annually until 1989 when it and WCT Circuit were replaced by a single world wide ATP Tour .
30-832: The BP National Championships was a Grand Prix and ATP Tour tennis tournament played from 1988 to 1995. It was held in Wellington in New Zealand and was played on outdoor hard courts . The tournament began as part of the Regular Series of the Grand Prix before joining the World Series of the ATP Tour when it was formed in 1990. After the tournament was replaced by the Qatar Open in 1993 it became
60-456: A guarantee. The manipulation of Grand Slam tournaments by professional promoters at the start of the Open Era led promoter Jack Kramer, the top male tennis player in the world in the 1940s and 1950s, to conceive of the Grand Prix in 1969. He described it as "a series of tournaments with a money bonus pool that would be split up on the basis of a cumulative point system." This would encourage
90-631: A panel of journalists had ranked the best players in the world. The best thirty-two men based on this ranking were invited to play the 1971 WCT circuit, which included Ilie Năstase , Stan Smith , Jan Kodeš , Željko Franulović , and Clark Graebner . The Australian Open was part of the WCT circuit while the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open were Grand Prix events. The conflict between the ILTF (running
120-910: A part of the ATP Challenger Series before being wound up in 1995. This event should not be confused with the New Zealand National Lawn Tennis Championships event that was first played in Auckland in 1886 which was also known as the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association Championships . That tournament later became known as the New Zealand Championships that was held until 2020 all of which have different rolls of winners to this one. Grand Prix tennis circuit Before
150-497: The 1972 US Open where they agreed to form their own syndicate, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), through the efforts of Jack Kramer, Donald Dell , and Cliff Drysdale. In 1973, there were four rival professional circuits: the WCT circuit battled with the U. S. Indoor Circuit from January to April and the Grand Prix until July; both tours competed with the "European Spring Circuit" until June. In that same year,
180-635: The Open Era , popular professional tennis players, such as Suzanne Lenglen and Vincent Richards , were contracted to professional promoters. Amateur players were under the jurisdiction of their national (and international) federations. Later professional promoters, such as Bill Tilden and Jack Kramer , often convinced leading amateurs like Pancho Gonzales and Rod Laver to join their tours with promises of good prize money. But these successes led to financial difficulties when players were paid too much and falling attendances resulted in reduced takings. In
210-545: The World Championship Tennis (WCT), a competing professional tennis league run by Lamar Hunt . The National Tennis League (NTL) was formed by former U.S. Davis Cup captain George MacCall in 1967, as a governing body to an American professional tennis tour. MacCall signed several players to contracts, including Arthur Ashe , Rod Laver , Roy Emerson and Stan Smith . The NTL followed in
240-639: The "Tennis Masters Series" until 2004, then the "ATP Masters Series" until 2009. They are now called the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments . Grand Prix tournaments below this level were originally called the Grand Prix Super Series . They were retained by the ATP and renamed as the " Championship Series ". All remaining Grand Prix Tour events became part of the " World Series ". Based on USLTA Tennis Yearbooks and Guides and World of Tennis yearbooks
270-487: The ATP created controversy by calling for a boycott of the 1973 Wimbledon Championships after one of its members, Niki Pilić, was suspended by the Yugoslav Tennis Federation for failing to play in a Davis Cup tie against New Zealand. The ATP boycott went ahead after negotiations failed, with only three members of the organisation – Roger Taylor, Ilie Năstase, and Ray Keldie – breaking
300-616: The Grand Prix circuit, on an experimental basis during its first year. The first World Championship Tennis tournament was held 20 January 1968 in Sydney, Australia. The first NTL tournament was held 18–21 March 1968 in São Paulo, Brazil. In July 1970, the WCT absorbed the NTL. In 1971, WCT ran a twenty-tournament circuit with the year-ending WCT Finals held in November. At the end of 1970,
330-537: The Grand Prix points system – to January for the 1987 edition so that the Grand Prix Masters could be held in December from 1986 onwards. It failed, however, to prevent the number of tournaments on the Grand Prix circuit from growing, with 48 being held in 1974 compared to 75 in 1989. The WCT and Grand Prix circuits were separate until 1978, when the Grand Prix circuit integrated the WCT circuit. In 1982,
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#1732802212035360-609: The Grand Prix was led by the Men's International Professional Tennis Council (MIPTC) from 1974 through 1989. (Its name was shortened to the Men's Tennis Council (MTC) in 1988.) The MIPTC's duties included imposing fines for violations of its Code of Conduct, drug testing, and administrating the Grand Prix circuit. It also moved the Australian Open from its December date – which had been adopted in 1977 so that it could be included in
390-461: The Grand Prix) and WCT was so strong that Rosewall, Gimeno, Laver, Emerson, and other WCT players boycotted the 1971 US Open . The third professional circuit that year was the U. S. Indoor Circuit run by Bill Riordan , the future manager of Jimmy Connors . In July 1971, the ILTF voted to ban all WCT contract professionals from competing in ILTF tournaments and from using ILTF facilities from
420-666: The MTC over the organisation of the Grand Prix and key issues such as player fatigue. During this press conference, the ATP declared that it would be starting its own tour in 1990, meaning that the 1989 Grand Prix would effectively be its last. The final event of the Grand Prix was the Nabisco Masters Doubles held at the Royal Albert Hall 6–10 December 1989. Its last champions were Jim Grabb and Patrick McEnroe , who beat John Fitzgerald and Anders Järryd in
450-405: The WCT circuit split from the Grand Prix again and created a more complex WCT ranking, similar to the ATP ranking. The split was short-lived, however, and in 1985 the Grand Prix absorbed the four remaining WCT tournaments. During the 1988 US Open the ATP, led by then-World No. 1 Mats Wilander , staged an impromptu meeting known as the "Parking Lot Press Conference" during failed negotiations with
480-543: The abandonment of the distinction between amateur and professional tennis players and by 1968, the beginning of the Open Era, all tennis players could compete in all tennis tournaments George MacCall sold the NTL's player contracts to Lamar Hunt in July 1970. He became the first Commissioner of World Team Tennis in 1974. Some of the players he signed to contracts were: Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson, Pancho Gonzales, Fred Stolle, Billie Jean King and Rosie Casals. He traveled
510-585: The beginning of 1972 onwards. The 1972 editions of the French Open and the Wimbledon Championships excluded all contract professional players. Then in April 1972, the ILTF and WCT agreed to divide the 1973 tour into a WCT circuit that ran from January through May and a Grand Prix circuit that ran for the rest of the year. The conflict between the ILTF and WCT led all tennis players to attend
540-574: The best players came under contract to one of two professional tours: When the Open Era began in 1968, tournaments often found themselves deprived of NTL or WCT players. The first open tournament, the British Hard Court Championships at Bournemouth , was played without WCT players, as was that year's French Open. In 1970, NTL players did not play in the Australian Open because their organization did not receive
570-495: The best players to compete regularly in the series, so that they could share in the bonus at the end and qualify for the special championship tournament climaxing the year. When only a few contract players showed up for the 1970 French Open , the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) approved Kramer's Grand Prix proposal. In April 1970, its president Ben Barnett announced the creation of
600-657: The chairman of the Wimbledon Championships . In 1967, David announced that a professional tournament would be held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club after the 1967 Wimbledon Championships . This tournament was televised by the BBC and built public support for professional tennis. In late 1967, the best of the amateur players turned professional, paving the way for the first open tournament. Some professionals were independent at this time, such as Lew Hoad , Luis Ayala , and Owen Davidson , but most of
630-516: The early 1960s, the professional tour began to fall apart. It survived only because the U.S. Pro Tennis Championships , having been unable to give prize money to its 1963 winner, received prize money from the First National Bank of Boston for its 1964 tournament. At the same time, the concept of "shamateurism" – amateur promoters paying players under the table to ensure they remained amateurs – had become apparent to Herman David ,
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#1732802212035660-448: The final. In 1990, the Association of Tennis Professionals , led by Hamilton Jordan , replaced the MTC as the sole governing body of men's professional tennis and the ATP Tour was born. The nine most prestigious Grand Prix tournaments became known as the "Championship Series Single Week" from 1990 through 1995. In 1996, Mercedes began sponsoring these series of events, renamed as the "Super 9" until 1999. In 2000, they became known as
690-484: The first woman of the Open Era to sign a pro contract to tour, in a group with Rosie Casals , Françoise Dürr and Ann Haydon-Jones as the women's section of the National Tennis League. "On April 1, 1968, we signed with the National Tennis League, as George MacCall's troupe was called. Frankie (Durr) and Rosie (Casals) received a guarantee of $ 20,000 per annum for two years, mine (Ann Haydon-Jones)
720-403: The history of sponsors is as follows: NB : All rankings were calculated using the Grand Prix points system and do not necessarily reflect the ATP rankings at the same time. National Tennis League National Tennis Leagues (NTL) was a tour for professional male tennis players established in 1967 by George MacCall. In 1970 it was sold to
750-497: The parent company of the NTL with Podesta as president and MacCall as executive director. Nevertheless, except for the 1969 and 1971 tournaments, many of the best players missed the Australian Open, because of the remoteness, the inconvenient dates (around Christmas and New Year's Day), and the low prize money. In 1970 the National Tennis League (NTL), which employed Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Andrés Gimeno, Pancho Gonzales, Roy Emerson and Fred Stolle, prevented its players from entering
780-414: The picket. They were later fined for this. The men's draws for that year were subsequently made up of second-string players, lucky losers, and older players such as Neale Fraser , who reached the final of the men's doubles with fellow Australian John Cooper . The draw also showcased future talents such as Björn Borg , Vijay Amritraj , Sandy Mayer , and John Lloyd amid record crowds. The governance of
810-498: The tournament because the guarantees were insufficient. The tournament was ultimately won by Arthur Ashe. Both professional organizations, the NTL and WCT, banned their contracted players from contesting the grand slams at some stage during their short tenure and this made the International Lawn Tennis Federation, the predecessor of the current ITF , very nervous. That was the catalyst that led to
840-478: The wake of MacCall's departure from the existing International Professional Tennis Association (IPTA), which had been created by promoter Wallace Dill in 1966, and preceded the creation of World Championship Tennis (WCT), formed by Lamar Hunt and David Dixon The NTL differed from the IPTA and from WCT in being the first to sign women to professional contracts in addition to men. In 1968 Billie Jean King became
870-401: Was $ 25,000 and Billie Jean King's was $ 40,000. George envisaged us playing a lot of matches and tournaments amongst ourselves and did not expect us to be as much involved in open tennis as later proved to be the case....We joined the six men that he already controlled - Emerson, Laver, Gimeno, Gonzales, Rosewall and Stolle. A group of ten was an attractive proposition to offer and he believed he
900-474: Was going to do very well from it. His main problem was one of administration. He had to keep flying all over the world to tie up arrangements with the various associations but didn't leave sufficient time to organize his professional tours in America, the most important part of the operation, and didn't seem to be able or willing to delegate." In June 1969 Fred Podesta's formed Tennis Champions Inc. and became
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