The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) was formed in 1972 to protect the interests of male professional Tennis players. (Female players formed the Women's Tennis Association the year after.) In 1990, the association became the organizer of the principal worldwide tennis tour, thereafter known as the ATP Tour.
Rankings
ATP Race
ATP defines the ATP Race as "an easy-to-understand, simple-to-follow annual race from season start to season end. Every player starts at zero at the beginning of the year and the player who accumulates the most points by season's end is the World Number 1" and claims that the Race "is the mathematical method of ranking male professional tennis players on a calendar-year basis."
According to ATP: "Every player, regardless of his performances in the previous year, starts with zero points. Players count 18 performances in their INDESIT ATP 2005 Race total. Players eligible to enter the Grand Slams and Tennis Masters Series events must count those events and their best five other results from the International Series events. The Tennis Masters Cup will count as an additional 19th tournament for the eight players who qualify."
ATP Entry Ranking
ATP defines the ATP Entry Ranking as "the objective merit-based method used for determining qualification for entry and seeding in all Tournaments for both singles and doubles, except as modified for World Team Championship, World Doubles Championship and Tennis Masters Cup...The Entry Ranking period is the immediate past 52 weeks, except for: the Tennis Masters Cup, which is dropped on the Monday following the last ATP event of the following year; Futures Series Tournaments, that are only entered into the System on the second Monday following the Tournament's week. Once entered, all Tournaments, except for the Tennis Masters Cup, remain in the System for 52 consecutive weeks."
ATP explains that the reason behind continuing with a 52-week rolling system is "to determine seedings and tournament entry status, it is not practical to use the INDESIT ATP 2005 Race. The Race, while indicating the hottest players in the game at any stage, does not necessarily indicate an overall standing in the game. This is especially valid at the start of the year when early tournament winners may well be leading the Race but are not yet established top players for the purposes of seeding and tournament entry."
List of Number One players on the ATP Entry Ranking
This is a list of players who have achieved the number one position in singles since the ranking's inception in 1973:
List of year-end #1 players since 1973
ATP Tour Records
Titles:
- Players who won the "Grand Slam" (All four Grand Slam tournaments in one calendar year): Don Budge (1938), Rod Laver (1962, 1969)
- Players who won all four Grand Slam tournaments at least once over their career: Andre Agassi, Don Budge, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, Fred Perry.
- Most Grand Slam titles won in a career: Pete Sampras (USA), 14.
- Most Tennis Masters Cup titles won in a career: Pete Sampras (USA) & Ivan Lendl (Czechoslovakia/USA), 5.
- Most Tennis Masters Series titles won in a career: Andre Agassi (USA), 17.
- Most titles in a season:
- Most finals won in succession: Roger Federer (Switzerland) between 2004-2005, 18.
- Consecutive tournaments won on 3 different surfaces:
- before 1990: Björn Borg (Sweden) in 1979.
- since 1990: Roger Federer (Switzerland) in 2004. [Wimbeldon (grass), Gstaad (clay) and Toronto Masters (hard)]
- Doubles:
- Most titles overall: Todd Woodbridge (Australia), 82.
- Most Grand Slam titles: Todd Woodbridge (Australia), 16.
Ranking:
- Most Weeks at No.1: Pete Sampras (USA), 286.
- Most consecutive weeks at No.1: Jimmy Connors (USA), 260 (July 29, 1974-August 22, 1977).
- Years-Ended at No.1: Pete Sampras (USA), 6.
- Youngest No.1-player: Lleyton Hewitt (Australia), 20y 9m.
- Youngest player to end a year in the top-200: Richard Gasquet (France) in 2002; 16 years old.
- Youngest player to end a year in the top-100: Richard Gasquet (France) in 2003; 17 years old.
- Youngest player to end a year in the top-20: Andy Roddick (USA) in 2001.
- Highest number of year-end ranking points: Roger Federer (Switzerland) in 2004, 6335. [Federer also owns the record for the highest ranking points at any time of the year for performances based on the past 52 weeks: 6875 points in the rankings published by ATP on October 4, 2004]
- Highest number of Race points (since 2000): Roger Federer (Switzerland) in 2004, 1267.
Longest Winning Streaks:
| # | Before 1990 | Matches (year)
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| 1 | Björn Borg | 49 (1978)
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| 2 | Guillermo Vilas | 46 (1977)
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| 3 | Ivan Lendl | 44 (1981-82)
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| 4 | Björn Borg | 40 (1979-80)
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| 5 | John McEnroe | 39 (1984)
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| # | Since 1990 | Matches (year)
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| 1 | Thomas Muster | 35 (1995)
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| 2 | Pete Sampras | 29 (1994)
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| 3 | Andre Agassi | 26 (1995)
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| 3 | Roger Federer | 26 (2004-05)
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| 4 | Jim Courier | 25 (1992)
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| 4 | Roger Federer | 25 (2005)
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- Grass:
- before 1990: Björn Borg (Sweden) between 1976-1980, 41.
- since 1990: Roger Federer (Switzerland) between 2003-2004, 24.
- Clay: Thomas Muster (Austria) in 1995, 40.
- Indoors: Ivan Lendl (Czechoslovakia/USA) between 1981-1983, 66.
- Against Top-10 players: Roger Federer (Switzerland) between 2003-2005, 26.
Miscellaneous:
| # | Player | Matches
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| 1 | Jimmy Connors | 1222
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| 2 | Ivan Lendl | 1070
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| 3 | Guillermo Vilas | 920
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| 4 | John McEnroe | 867
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| 5 | Andre Agassi | 822
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- Win-Loss leaders:
- before 1990: Ivan Lendl (Czechoslovakia/USA) in 1982, 106-9 (.922).
- since 1990: Thomas Muster (Austria) in 1995, 86-18 (.827).
- Winning percentage leaders:
- before 1990: John McEnroe (USA) in 1984, .965 (W-L: 83-2).
- since 1990: Roger Federer (Switzerland) in 2004, .925 (W-L: 74-6).
- Best start to a season:
- before 1990: John McEnroe (USA) in 1984, W-L: 39-0
- since 1990: Roger Federer (Switzerland) in 2005, W-L: 32-1.
- Most Aces hit in a match (since 1991):
- Most Prize Money won:
- Career: Pete Sampras (USA), $43,280,489.
- At the end of the season: Pete Sampras (USA) in 1997, $6,498,311.
- Most times elected ATP Player of The Year: Pete Sampras (USA) between 1993-1998, 6.
- Longest singles match: Fabrice Santoro defeated Arnaud Clément (France) at Roland Garros 2004, in a 6h 37m first round match.
- Fastest individual serve recorded (since 1991): Andy Roddick (USA) in 2004, 155 Mh/249 Km.
Internal links
External links
