|
Explainations of Tennis Touanaments
ATP Championships and the Grand Slam Cup
ATP Tour World Championship
ATP Tour World Doubles Championship
Grand Slam Cup
ATP "Super 9"
Davis Cup
Fed Cup
The ATP Championships and the Grand Slam Cup
On the men's tour, there are two year-end singles championships: the ATP
Tour World Championship and the Grand Slam Cup. There is also a year-end
doubles championship: The ATP Tour World Doubles Championship.
The ATP Tour World Championship
The ATP Tour World Championship in Hannover, Germany is the last singles
event on the ATP Tour in a calendar year. The top eight (8) players in the
ATP rankings as of the Monday of the tournament qualify, while the ninth
player is the alternate. The ATP rankings for this week only consists of
the "best 14" results from all tournaments in that calendar year, up to
and including the week immediately prior to the ATP Tour World Championship.
In other words, points received from this tournament in the previous year
are NOT included in the calculation of rankings.
The eight players are divided into two groups of four. Within each group,
the four players face one another exactly once in round robin matches. The
top two finishers from each group advance to the semi-final. Within each
group, the two players who win the most matches finish 1 and 2. If there
is a tie between two players, the one who wins their head-to-head match
wins the tie. If there is a three-way tie, the percentage of sets won will
be used to break the tie. If there is still a tie, the percentage of games
won will be used to break the tie.
In the semi-final, the top finisher from one group plays the second from
the other. The semi-final winners advance to the final, which is best-of-
five tie-break sets (i.e. if the fifth set is tied at 6-6, the players
will play a tie break to decide the match and therefore the championship).
All other matches are best-of-three tie-break sets.
In 1996, players received the following ranking points from the ATP Tour
World Championship.
each round robin match won: 80 points
winning a semi-final match: 190 points
winning the final: 280 points
No bonus points are given for beating ranked players in this tournament.
For example, if a player wins all three round robin matches and of course
the semi and final on the way to the title, he would have received:
80 * 3 + 190 + 280 = 710 points
The ATP Tour World Doubles Championship
The ATP World Doubles Championship is the year-ending championship for
the top doubles teams on the ATP Tour. In 1996, the doubles championship
was held in the United States in Hartford, CT. The top eight (8)
doubles teams as of the Monday of the tournament qualify for the event.
Note that qualification is based on team rather than individual doubles
rankings.
As with the ATP Singles Championship, the early rounds of the doubles
championship is a round robin event featuring two groups of four teams.
The two top teams in each group, determined by round robin match results,
advance to the semifinals, whereupon a single-elimination draw format
is followed to ultimately determine the winner.
The Grand Slam Cup
The Grand Slam Cup in Munich, Germany is a tournament created by the ITF
(International Tennis Federation). The Grand Slam Cup is not an ATP Tour
event. No ranking points are awarded with this event, but the match
results do count toward the ATP head-to-head records (this is a change
from previous policy), and the Grand Slam Cup is now considered as an
official career title.
Eligibility for the Grand Slam Cup is determined by a player's results
from the four Grand Slam events in that calendar year. The players are
awarded a certain number of points depending on how far they advance in
each event. The top 16 with the highest number of total points qualify.
Seedings for this event is determined by the GS points, NOT the usual
rankings. The first two rounds of the Grand Slam Cup are best of three
sets. The semi and final are best of five sets. If a match reaches the
maximum set, that set has to be won by game advantage. That is, there is
no tie break in the 3rd set of best-of-three matches nor the 5th set of
best-of-five matches.
Grand Slam Cup points from GS events:
winner: 600
finalist: 450
semi finalist: 300
quarter finalist: 150
round of 16: 75
third round: 40
second round: 20
first round: 2
The ATP "Super 9"
The tournaments on the ATP tour are designated into two main tiers
(excluding Challenger events), called Championship Series and World
Series. Championship series events offer more prize money and attract
bigger-name players.
The ATP has given special status to 9 of their Championship Series
tournaments. These tournaments are known as the Super 9.
An ATP Top Ten player is supposed to play in at least 8 of these 9
special events, and each event must field at least eight of the Top
Ten men (singles). The idea is to get the top players to play each
other more often and add prestige to selected ATP events.
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is an international team competition introduced in 1900 by
American Dwight Davis. While initally only two teams participated (the
USA and Great Britain), the competition has grown into an event in which
over 100 nations now participate. The Davis Cup has undergone a number
of format changes over the years, assuming its current competition format
during the 1980's.
Davis Cup is divided into World Group competition and Zone competitions.
There are three zones: American, Euro-African, and Asia-Pacific. Within
each zone countries square off for the opportunity to advance to the
World Group.
The World Group consists of the 16 top countries which compete in a
single-elimination draw to determine the Cup winner for a given year.
Around September, each of the 8 first round losers play the top 8
finishers in the Zone competitions in a "relegation tie." The winner
of each tie advances to the World Group for the next year, while the
loser is relegated to Zone competition.
The format of the Davis Cup tie is as follows:
Day 1: Singles A
Singles B
Day 2: Doubles
Day 3: Reverse Singles C
Reverse Singles D
The team winning at least three matches wins the tie. Before each tie,
a team selects players to compete in that tie. One of the teams hosts
the tie in their country and has the right to choose the court surface.
If two nations have never competed before, a draw determines the host
Fed Cup
The Fed Cup is formerly known as the Federation Cup. The Fed Cup is
the women's version of the Davis Cup. Through 1994, the format of the
Fed Cup was that the entire event was held over a one week period in one
city. As of 1995, the Fed Cup has adopted a Davis Cup style format.
As with Davis Cup, the Fed Cup competition is divided into the highest
level World Group and the lower level Zone competitions. The World Group
consists of 8 countries which compete using a single elimination draw to
determine the Cup winner for a given year. The 4 countries which lose in
the 1st round (quarterfinals) are required to compete in a qualifying,
or relegation round, against 4 other countries winning Zone competition
matches, for the right to remain in the World Group for the next year.
The format of a Fed Cup "tie" is as follows. The tie will be played
over two days. Day 1 features two singles matches. Day 2 features the
reverse singles matches and then the doubles match. As in Davis Cup, the
team winning at least three matches wins the tie. Also, like Davis Cup,
one of the two teams serves as the host country, with host duties
alternating for a given pair of opposing countries. The host country
enjoys the privilege of choosing the venue and court surface for the
tie.
|
