Tennis France Federation
Tennis – Reformations of the ATP Tour
This year's ATP season draws to a close, there are only two tournaments left, the BNP Paribas Masters in France and the Tennis Masters Cup in China. The players have about a month later to get some rest and concentrate already on the start of next season to 5 January 2009, begins with the first three tournaments in Qatar, India and Australia.
There are several modifications planned for the new season, to be restructured as the calendar, the Prize money will be partially raised and some of the court surfaces will be modified. In total there are 63 tournaments for the next season announced which will take place on all five continents, where around 31 countries will act as hosts.
One of the most important reforms in the calendar for the coming season to ATP is to change the name of the tournament categories. The Masters Series will now be "Masters 1000" and the eleven tournaments on the International Series Gold are now called by the name "500". The numbers indicate the points that keep the players by winning one of the tournaments in the series. So if a player in the Masters, he and 1,000 points after winning a tournament at the former Gold Series received, he receives 500 points. awarded for all other ATP tournaments players 250 points.
The tournament in South Africa Johannesburg, which is part of the ATP calendar of 1976-1995 was an outdoor tournament in a hard place to come back to the 2009 season. On the other hand, the Austrian tournament in Kitzbuehel not part of the ATP calendar any more. The first tournament of the year changed its position in Australia from Adelaide to Brisbane and the final of the ATP-best eight players at the end of the year by Shanghai to move to London. The German fans will not deal with losses, which is five tournaments in Hamburg, Stuttgart, Halle, Munich and Dusseldorf in the calendar on. In the United States and France enjoy the fans can more tournaments than before.
Another change for the court surface has been made is be the game on carpets made entirely from the agenda for the games in general slow down and thus more interesting. "We want to play anymore on surfaces, the seven or eight years were prepared. On the carpets then had the games last longer than an hour, "said the director of the tournament in Vienna, Peter Feigl, in an interview. And so the last indoor tournaments in Europe is now the hard court is to be laid.
The Reformation was in 2007 by the ATP manager Etienne de Villiers announced. But the players do not seem very happy about this decision. Two years ago there were about 60 players, among them the Swiss Roger Federer and Spaniard Rafael Nadal who collected their signatures and sent a protest letter to the ATP. De Villiers contract expires on 31 December this year and he announced that it does not extend. Is his decision has nothing to do with the accumulation of criticism?
It is possible that after the next ATP conference, everything is different, and that maybe the announced reorganization will even be withdrawn completely … We'll see.
About the Author
Emeli Dean is a high-ranking writer on sports for the sports betting industry.
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