Added: 12/03/2005 |
Major ITF tournamentsThe game of tennis is undoubtedly one of the most popular sports all over the world. There are three major bodies involved in world's tennis to date: International Tennis Federation (ITF), Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Women Tennis Association (WTA).
The ITF's participation in competitions ranges from top professional ITF tournaments such as the four Grand Slams - the Roland Garros, Australian Open, the US Open, the Wimbledon and Olympic Tennis Event - to the Futures Circuit and ITF Men's Satellite tournaments and the ITF Women's Circuit. There are also numerous team events and ITF tournaments for seniors, juniors, and wheelchair players.
The ITF arranges men's team tournaments such as the Davis Cup, and women's, such as the Fed Cup, which give opportunity to players to represent their nation. This is a uncommon and valued occasion in a sport that is for the most part individualistic. The Australian competition, the Hyundai Hopman Cup, which is owned by ITF, also provides competitors with the opportunity to get pleasure from mixed team games at the beginning of the season. Sanctioned by ITF, Nations Senior Cup was at first run in 1999, and developed into the first nations senior competition to assemble the most prominent tennis players, retired from the Davis Cup and ATP play.
The ITF also co-owns and co-hosts the Tennis Masters Cup with the ATP and the Grand Slams, the competition which closes the ATP season.
ITF adult tournaments review begins with the ITF Men's Circuit and will be followed by Women's Circuit.
The ITF Men's Circuit offers the entry stage of professional ITF tournaments allowing players to ultimately reach the tournaments of higher level on the ATP Tour.
Men's Circuit includes two types of ITF tournaments, satellite circuits and futures tournaments.
The last are single week ITF tournaments provide either $10,000 or $15,000 money reward. Satellite Circuits on the other hand encompasses four Satellite Tournaments. Satellite Circuits traditionally offer either $75,000, $50,000 or $25,000 as a money reward for four weeks.
Generally, the Men's Circuit involves more than 400 weeks of tennis. The larger share of these weeks consists of Futures Tournaments, the rest being Satellites. All these ITF tournaments are held in more than 50 different countries annually.
The ITF Women's Circuit offers the entry stage ITF tournaments giving players the opportunity to reach the WTA TOUR. Women's Circuit incorporates about 370 tournaments in over 50 countries wide-reaching and has four levels of prize money: US$75,000, US$50,000, US$25,000, and US$10,000. Total money fund is more than US$8 million.
In 2005, nearly all the $75,000 and $50,000 events granted the finalist or winner a place in the draw of a WTA Tour Tier IV or Tier III event. The finalist or winners of some $25,000 tournaments were given a position in the WTA Tour Tier IV qualifying draw.
In the junior tournaments review will be vain without mentioning the ITF Junior Circuit. It's been growing swiftly and from just nine events in six countries in 1977 turned into the huge assortment of tournaments in over 100 countries in 2004.
Article comments:
No comments for this article yet. Post your comment now!
