Organisation history of the Open Era before 1990

[ChrisRF]

Hi guys! This is my first post on this forum!

As I’m very interested in sports history (and tennis especially) I tried to disentangle the chaos in the organisation of world’s tennis from the beginning of the Open Era to the start of the ATP Tour in 1990. I think this excellent board is the right place.

After combining all available informations from different sources I created a short history of this time. The ambition is to understand how the interplay between the different Pro Circuits worked and what their meaning was for players and rankings.
That ist not really easy and some questions are still remaining, so I hope that we can answer them together.

So let’s go shortly year by year (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong!):

1967
The start of the Open Era is decided for 1968, which means that Pro players are allowed to compete in all of the main tennis tournaments around the world.

From now on, private promoters tried to sign contracts with the top Pro players. Two main series were established. So there were 3 different types of Pro players at the beginning of the Open Era:
1) World Championship Tennis (WCT) Series created by Dave Dixon
2) National Tennis League (NTL) Series created by George McCall
3) independent Pros without a contract in the two series

1968/69
At the start of the Open Era there were many different types of tournaments:
- Open tournaments for all types of Professionals and Amateurs
- WCT contract players tournaments
- NTL contract players tournaments
- Tournaments for both types pf contract players
- Tournaments for all types of Pro players (also the independent ones)

The contract Pro tournament draws of this time show that there were often players of WCT an NTL in the same draw. It seemed to be possible for WCT Pro to play at some NTL-organized tournaments, but most of them seemed to be for both series players a priori.

1970
WCT an NTL merged to one organisation only under the name WCT
To secure the situation of the independent Pro players and to allow them to compete at more tournaments, the Grand Prix Circuit was founded. The ITF supported this circuit primarily because it was totally open for all players (at least in theory).

After that, Grand Prix and WCT ran parallel and had their own rankings. Based on these rankings, both Circuits had an own year-and-torunament: “The Masters” (Grand Prix) and the WCT Finals.

The participating conditions were in general:
WCT: only players with WCT contract were allowed (which was assigned by nearly all top players over the years)
Grand Prix: open for all players (also WCT players)

These general rules were ineffective at some time because of the strong rivalry between both circuits. Often the conflict resulted in player bans at important Grand Prix tournaments or the order for contract Pros not to play at open tournaments. This problem also effected the Grand Slams.

1972
During a season with many player bans, the ATP was founded to be able to represent the players interests in better ways.
After that, there were 3 diffrent ranking systems: Grand Prix, WCT and ATP ranking

1973
There were 2 other private Contract Pro Series: The US Indoor Circuit and the European Spring Circuit. However, they had hardly any meaning in comparison to the 2 big circuits.

1978-1981
The WCT was part of the Grand Prix Circuit but maintained the ranking for the WCT Finals

1982-1984
WCT and Grand Pric were splitted again

1985-1990
The WCT became part af the Grand Prix Circuit again, but with only very few remaining tournaments. However, the WCT rankings and WCT finals stayed alive.

Since 1990
The ATP gave their name for all tournaments at the top of world’s tennis. The ATP Tour was born as the only organisation und ranking. Both the Grand Prix and WCT didn’t exist anymore.


So far my available informations. Still some important facts are unknown, so I have some questions to the community:

1) What exactly did the ATP from 1972 to 1990 to secure the players interests and to stop the banning in particular tournaments? Did the ATP have an interfering function between both Circuits? And how did the circuits react to ATP claims?
2) How did the ATP ranking work in this time and what was the meaning? Was it an early try to combine both Circuits? Which tournaments counted in ATP rankings?
3) What was the effect to the rankings, when the WCT became part of the Grand Prix? Were the Grand Prix and ATP rankings the same in this period?
4) Was a WCT contract still needed to play WCT-organized tournaments when WCT was part of the Grand Prix?

So long for now. I hope to get answers from the experts here and I’m looking forward to more interesting discussions!

 

[urban]

In great parts, the overview seems correct. The early open years were really a struggle for supremacy and control. When suddenly the big money came into tennis, all kinds of promoters and managers wanted the lions piece. Behind those groups stood promoters like Lamar Hunt, Philippe Chatrier or Jack Kramer, and behind certain players stood personal managers like Donald Dell or Mark McCormack or Bill Riordan, who went to war against each others. For the boom years in the early 70s, tennis shifted to the USA, and the ILTF tried to hold the interests of national organisations and the Davis Cup high. ILTF and national federations had held control over all amateur tennis before 1968. They feared, that Lamar Hunt with his successful concept of a world wide pro circuit would shut them out.
The ATP originally was a players union against the national federations, formed by WCT men like Newcombe, Ashe and Drysdale. Their birthplace was the struggle round the Pilic ban, who was banned for Wimbledon 1973 by his federation, because he skipped Davis Cup. So they organized the Wim boycott and began to play a major role. And they invented the ranking computer in end 1973, originally to make a correct draw in all tournaments. When the ATP became a promotional force with an own ATP tour in the late 80s, the ITF countered with a rival year end event, the Grand Slam Cup at Munich.

 

[Limpinhitter]

I think this is a worthwhile project. I've read bits, pieces and parts of the story behind the origins of the open era pro tour. But, a complete, yet, concise chronology of the evolution of the pro tour would be a great service to the tennis community.

 

[hoodjem]

1968/69
At the start of the Open Era there were many different types of tournaments:
- Open tournaments for all types of Professionals and Amateurs
- WCT contract players tournaments
- NTL contract players tournaments
- Tournaments for both types pf contract players
- Tournaments for all types of Pro players (also the independent ones)

The contract Pro tournament draws of this time show that there were often players of WCT an NTL in the same draw. It seemed to be possible for WCT Pro to play at some NTL-organized tournaments, but most of them seemed to be for both series players a priori.

1970
WCT an NTL merged to one organisation only under the name WCT
To secure the situation of the independent Pro players and to allow them to compete at more tournaments, the Grand Prix Circuit was founded. The ITF supported this circuit primarily because it was totally open for all players (at least in theory).

What month in 1970?

I seem to recall that Laver (and others) could not play the 1970 AO because he was under contract to the NTL?

 

[urban]

The first WCT events with former NTL players were in April-May 1970, for instance St. Louis. A good read on this question is Richard Evans, 20 years of Open tennis. Evans was involved in the promotional struggles, because he worked for the ATP in the 70s at their buro in Paris.

 

[ChrisRF]

The ATP originally was a players union against the national federations, formed by WCT men like Newcombe, Ashe and Drysdale. Their birthplace was the struggle round the Pilic ban, who was banned for Wimbledon 1973 by his federation, because he skipped Davis Cup. So they organized the Wim boycott and began to play a major role. And they invented the ranking computer in end 1973, originally to make a correct draw in all tournaments. When the ATP became a promotional force with an own ATP tour in the late 80s, the ITF countered with a rival year end event, the Grand Slam Cup at Munich.

So the ATP was mainly an instance to stop the player bans. That's what I thought before. But it suprises me that WCT men established the ATP because WCT tournaments were also not really open but only for contract players as we know. However, what tournaments were involved in the ATP rankings since the early 70s? Were it all WCT and Grand Prix tournaments to have a combined ranking apart from the two circuit rankings?

So can we resume the existent rankings the following way?

1973-1977 (and later years with strict separation between GP and WCT):
GP ranking
WCT ranking
ATP ranking = GP+WCT combined

1978-1981 (and later years with WCT being part of GP):
GP ranking (including WCT tournaments)
WCT only ranking (just for the WCT Finals)
ATP ranking = GP ranking (cause WCT is still part of it)


Or would it be too simple for the whole chaos that world's tennis was back then?


Other question: Why was there also a rivalry between ITF and ATP later? They should have the same aims: Creating open tennis for everybody and restricting the power of promoters. Also I thought that the ITF (or ILTF) was the governing body and setter of the rules for all concerning tennis, and ATP/WTA are only the sections for men/women. So there should be no need for rivalry.

 

[kiki]

Hi guys! This is my first post on this forum!

As I’m very interested in sports history (and tennis especially) I tried to disentangle the chaos in the organisation of world’s tennis from the beginning of the Open Era to the start of the ATP Tour in 1990. I think this excellent board is the right place.

After combining all available informations from different sources I created a short history of this time. The ambition is to understand how the interplay between the different Pro Circuits worked and what their meaning was for players and rankings.
That ist not really easy and some questions are still remaining, so I hope that we can answer them together.

So let’s go shortly year by year (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong!):

1967
The start of the Open Era is decided for 1968, which means that Pro players are allowed to compete in all of the main tennis tournaments around the world.

From now on, private promoters tried to sign contracts with the top Pro players. Two main series were established. So there were 3 different types of Pro players at the beginning of the Open Era:
1) World Championship Tennis (WCT) Series created by Dave Dixon
2) National Tennis League (NTL) Series created by George McCall
3) independent Pros without a contract in the two series

1968/69
At the start of the Open Era there were many different types of tournaments:
- Open tournaments for all types of Professionals and Amateurs
- WCT contract players tournaments
- NTL contract players tournaments
- Tournaments for both types pf contract players
- Tournaments for all types of Pro players (also the independent ones)

The contract Pro tournament draws of this time show that there were often players of WCT an NTL in the same draw. It seemed to be possible for WCT Pro to play at some NTL-organized tournaments, but most of them seemed to be for both series players a priori.

1970
WCT an NTL merged to one organisation only under the name WCT
To secure the situation of the independent Pro players and to allow them to compete at more tournaments, the Grand Prix Circuit was founded. The ITF supported this circuit primarily because it was totally open for all players (at least in theory).

After that, Grand Prix and WCT ran parallel and had their own rankings. Based on these rankings, both Circuits had an own year-and-torunament: “The Masters” (Grand Prix) and the WCT Finals.

The participating conditions were in general:
WCT: only players with WCT contract were allowed (which was assigned by nearly all top players over the years)
Grand Prix: open for all players (also WCT players)

These general rules were ineffective at some time because of the strong rivalry between both circuits. Often the conflict resulted in player bans at important Grand Prix tournaments or the order for contract Pros not to play at open tournaments. This problem also effected the Grand Slams.

1972
During a season with many player bans, the ATP was founded to be able to represent the players interests in better ways.
After that, there were 3 diffrent ranking systems: Grand Prix, WCT and ATP ranking

1973
There were 2 other private Contract Pro Series: The US Indoor Circuit and the European Spring Circuit. However, they had hardly any meaning in comparison to the 2 big circuits.

1978-1981
The WCT was part of the Grand Prix Circuit but maintained the ranking for the WCT Finals

1982-1984
WCT and Grand Pric were splitted again

1985-1990
The WCT became part af the Grand Prix Circuit again, but with only very few remaining tournaments. However, the WCT rankings and WCT finals stayed alive.

Since 1990
The ATP gave their name for all tournaments at the top of world’s tennis. The ATP Tour was born as the only organisation und ranking. Both the Grand Prix and WCT didn’t exist anymore.


So far my available informations. Still some important facts are unknown, so I have some questions to the community:

1) What exactly did the ATP from 1972 to 1990 to secure the players interests and to stop the banning in particular tournaments? Did the ATP have an interfering function between both Circuits? And how did the circuits react to ATP claims?
2) How did the ATP ranking work in this time and what was the meaning? Was it an early try to combine both Circuits? Which tournaments counted in ATP rankings?
3) What was the effect to the rankings, when the WCT became part of the Grand Prix? Were the Grand Prix and ATP rankings the same in this period?
4) Was a WCT contract still needed to play WCT-organized tournaments when WCT was part of the Grand Prix?

So long for now. I hope to get answers from the experts here and I’m looking forward to more interesting discussions!

Not bad at all... but I think you forgot to mention the creation of WTT (World team tennis) by Larry King ( husband of BJK) in the middle 70´s as one of the major pro facts of the 1970´s.I think it was, not because it was a real great event, but because it showed the possibilities of the sport as a mass audience product

 

[teachestennis]

ChrisRF, I hope you get this message, I am finishing up a book on the History of Tennis Instruction which I published excerpts on the internet as a prelude of what was to come. I have not appeared on Talk Tennis forums in several years but plan to reemerge beginning with this post. As was pointed out to you, the WTT tour was very important and a lot of people don't know that players such as Borg were banished from certain Grand Slams for being associated with certain alphabets. I have interviewed several principals for my book involved or witnesses to the principals involved as the game went open. You will likely learn some good tidbits. Please feel free to email me at mtmcoach@yahoo.com given I tried to email you through this site but your profile did not take emails. I will be contacting some of these posters myself (some already gave feedback a few years ago but they haven't seen the juicy parts, lol) for further feedback before I take the book to final edition. It's facts and evidence will surprise a lot of people and maybe stir and honest and public debate how the alphabet soups have likely been the biggest barriers to the growth of tennis. Anyone here who wishes to preview more of my nearly finished book may feel free to contact me. I want to get all the facts straight before I publish the final edition which is close to 200 pages. Next task is to get John McEnroe interviewed to get his viewpoint regarding tennis instruction tenets. Since he has never ridden with the herd, I think he will like what my book is trying to accomplish. Wish me luck. I will be crediting people from Talk Tennis for their wonderful contributions and thoughts as they sometimes know more than the "experts" (and definitely me) when it comes to what is truly relevant regarding a specific tennis subject.