In response to a player climbing the rankings, I was asked 'why would a tennis player care if they are not number 1 or something?'
Well, the reality is ranking really do matter to players. To enter tournaments with the big prize money, you need a good 'ranking', as entry to tournaments is decided purely by this ranking.
For every tournament, players earn 'rankings points', and the cumulative 'ranking points' earned over the previous 12 months, determines a players ranking. The player with the most points is number 1, right down to players ranked well over 1,000.
Different tournaments, different points.
A good Ranking earns entry to the biggest prize-money tournaments!
Overall, there are ATP (Association of Tour Professionals) tournaments, 'challenger' tournaments, and 'futures' tournaments, each delivering decreasing points, with the main tennis tour being the ATP tournaments. But to gain entry to ATP tournaments, you need a ranking, which when you don't already have a ranking, must be earned at the 'challengers' and 'futures'. The higher the ranking you have the greater your opportunity to earn a higher ranking, and prize-money!
For men's tournaments, currently in 2011, there are four 'grand slam' tournaments with 2,000 points for the winner. Lesser points are awarded for reaching earlier stages of tournament with some points available just for being invited. Below the 'grand slams' are ATP 1,000 tournaments with 1,000 points for the winner and 500 and 250 tournaments with, of course, 500 or 250 points respectively for the winner.
What Ranking is Required to play in which tournaments?
Once ranking reaches around 200 in the world, you may be eligible to enter some ATP tournaments 'qualifying' competitions. Here is a list (incomplete) of what reaching various world rankings enable.
Rank. Tournament Entry/Benefit
Below the top 200 - futures and challenger tournaments
200 Some Qualifier competitions prior to main tournaments
100 Direct Entry to Grand Slam Tournaments
90 Direct entry to '1000' series tournaments in Miami and Indian Wells
50-60 Direct entry to '500' series tournaments, and '250' tournaments
50 Direct entry to remaining '1000' series tournaments, and all other ATP tournaments
32 Seeded player in grand slams
16 Seeded player in 1000 series tournaments
8 Seeded player with direct entry to 2nd round in 1000 series tournaments
Additionally, a ranking of 8 or below at year end.....exclusive entry to year end tournament open only to top 8 players.
So how does it work? - The boring details
Competitions are played in 'rounds'. Only the winners of each round progress to the next round, so each round has half the number of players of the previous round. This means there are 2 players in the final round, 4 players for the 'semi-final', 8 players for the 'quarter-final', and a round prior to the quarter final with 16 players. A five round tournament can have 32 players in a round prior to the round with 16, and a 6 round tournament can have 64 players in the first round, while a 7 round tournament can have 128 players in the first round.
The 'Grand Slams' and 1000 series tournaments are compulsory for all registered players and they are automatically entered if their ranking is high enough. The smaller 500 and 250 tournaments are not compulsory, and at least two tournaments are held at the same time.
Grand Slams
There are four 'Grand slams'. These are played over 7 rounds, and there are 128 players in a 'grand slam' competition. However 16 places go to players entering through the qualifying tournament. This leaves 112 places, but of these 8 places are given to 'wild cards' who are given entry even though their ranking would not normally allow them to play. So 104 places are filled directly from the points ranking system. Of course at any given time their will be some some players who are injured so up to as high as 110 ranked player may gain entry.
Special ATP 1,000 tournaments:Miami and Indian Wells.
These two tournaments are played over 7 rounds as the grand slams are, but 32 places are 'byes' or empty places, allowing 32 players to have no opponent in the first round. This means there are 96 places in these tournaments, and with 12 places going to qualifiers and 4 places going to wild cards, leaving 8o places for direct entry to the tournament. The top 32 players having byes in the first round allows for both round 1 and 2 to have 32 matches.
Other 1000 series Tournaments
These 7 other 1000 tournaments, are played with 6 rounds, and with 8 players having byes in the first round, there are 56 places in the tournaments. Of these, 7 are allocated to the qualifying tournament and usually 4 wild cards, leaving 45 places for direct entry. This can allow for up to approximately a ranking of 50 if as many as 5 players are injured.
500 Series tournaments
Just as 1000 tournaments can be either 6 or 7 rounds, 500 tournaments can be 5 or 6 rounds.
The 6 round tournaments (currently Barcelona, Washington and Hamburg) have either 56 places (using 8 byes in round 1) or 48 places (with 16 byes in round 1). With around 8 places going to qualifying and wild cards, there are around 48-42 direct places.
The other 8 tournaments have 5 rounds and have 32 places, as currently none have any byes. Allowing 4 qualifiers and 3 wild cards leaves 25 direct places, but these smaller tournaments are always held at the same time as either another 500 tournament or two 250 tournaments, so players down to at least ranking of 50 can get a direct place into a tournament. In fact, since these tournaments are not compulsory, some higher ranked players may take a break and normally it is possible to get entry to tournament with a rank of around 60.
ATP 250 Tournaments
With even less points and prize money available, some of the best players may skip some of the these tournaments. Also, there is more than one at a time, so of those very top players who do enter, there are shared amoung tournaments. Currently there are two 250 tournaments with 6 rounds being London (56 players) and Winston Salem (48 players) while all the 39 other 250 tournaments have 5 rounds and either 32 players or more often 28 places with 4 byes available to highest four ranking players that enter. Despite the 28 being reduced by 4 qualifiers and up to 3 'wild cards' the fact that there can be as many as three tournaments at once can mean players ranked as low as 70 can often find a direct entry available.
Appendixes
Tournament combinations:
56 places (8 byes for highest ranked)
48 places
32 places. 3 wild cards, 4 qualifiers
rotterdam (32)/250s
memphis(32)/250s
dubai(32)/acapulco(28)
bacelona (56)
hamburg(48)
washington(48)
china(32)/tokyo(32)
valencia(32)/basel(32)
250
48
32
28
Qualifying Tournaments
Grand Slam: 128 for 16 places
Miami/Indian Wells: 48 for 12 places
Remaining 1000 tournaments:28 for 7 places
500 Tournaments: 16 for 4 places
250 Tournaments: 16 for 4 places
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