Women's Tennis Association

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (June 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

The Women's Tennis Association, formed in 1973, is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. It organizes the WTA Tour, the worldwide professional tennis tour for women, which has for sponsorship reasons been known since 2005 as The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. Its counterpart organization in the men's professional game is the ATP.

The Women's Tennis Association can trace its origins back to Houston, Texas when the inaugural Virginia Slims event was won on 23 September 1970. Billie Jean King was a major figure in the early days of the WTA.

[edit] Tournament categories

The WTA divides the main women's tournaments into several tiers:

1. Grand Slam Events (4)
2. Season-ending championships (Sony Ericsson Championships): with Three Million Dollars ($3,000,000) prize money.
3. Tier tournaments:
   1. Tier I (minimum prize money of $1,340,000): There are ten (10) Tier I Tournaments.
   2. Tier II (minimum prize money of $600,000): There are sixteen (16) Tier II Tournaments.
   3. Tier III(minimum prize money of $175,000): There are seventeen (17) Tournaments in this Tier.
   4. Tier IV (minimum prize money of $145,000): There are twelve (12) Tournaments in this Tier.

Ranking points are also available at certain International Tennis Federation (ITF) events below Tier IV (see next section).

[edit] Ranking

The organization releases a weekly ranking of the players's performance in the tour. Players' ranking points are counted how they fare on individual rounds of a tournament (round points). The following table gives the distribution of "round points" (note that these values were changed for the 2007 season):

(*) “+H” indicates that Hospitality is provided

A player's point total is calculated on a weekly basis, counting only tournaments played within the last year. The top 17 tournaments of the past year count toward a player's point total, with the lowest of the player's scores being dropped from the total. The exceptions are the four grand slam tournaments and the mandatory Tier I tournament, which always count toward the player's point total, even if their score in the slam is lower than another score achieved in a non-slam tournament. All players who qualify by ranking for acceptance into the main draw of a Grand Slam or the mandatory Tier I tournament will be entered automatically. Any player who is accepted into one of these tournaments and subsequently withdraws will automatically receive zero points for the tournament and will have it count as one of their best 17 tournament results.

In 1996, the WTA started awarding players "quality points", which were calculated based on the rankings of players they defeated in tournaments. This would give more points to a player who beat a top ranked player than one who beat a lower ranked player. Quality points were discontinued after the 2005 season and are no longer used.

[edit] WTA Rankings

WTA Rankings (9 June 2008)
Rk	Name	Nation	Points	+/-
1	Ana Ivanović	SRB	4,222	+1
2	Maria Sharapova	RUS	3,806	−1
3	Jelena Janković	SRB	3,755	=
4	Svetlana Kuznetsova	RUS	3,565	=
5	Elena Dementieva	RUS	2,750	+3
6	Serena Williams	USA	2,676	−1
7	Venus Williams	USA	2,606	=
8	Anna Chakvetadze	RUS	2,541	−2
9	Dinara Safina	RUS	2,222	+5
10	Marion Bartoli	FRA	2,035	−1
11	Daniela Hantuchová	SVK	2,032	−1
12	Patty Schnyder	SUI	1,940	−1
13	Vera Zvonareva	RUS	1,912	−1
14	Agnieszka Radwańska	POL	1,776	+1
15	Ágnes Szávay	HUN	1,681	−1
16	Victoria Azarenka	BLR	1,386	+1
17	Alizé Cornet	FRA	1,248	+3
18	Francesca Schiavone	ITA	1,201	+1
19	Nicole Vaidišová	CZE	1,187	−3
20	Tatiana Golovin	FRA	1,160	+1
21	Nadia Petrova	RUS	1,146	+4
22	Flavia Pennetta	ITA	1,137	+8
23	Maria Kirilenko	RUS	1,123	=
24	Katarina Srebotnik	SLO	1,110	=
25	Shahar Pe'er	ISR	1,077	−7
26	Lindsay Davenport	USA	1,055	=
27	Virginie Razzano	FRA	1,030	+1
28	Sybille Bammer	AUT	1,012	−6
29	Alona Bondarenko	UKR	988	−2
30	Amélie Mauresmo	FRA	987	−1

[edit] Records

[edit] Most titles won during the open era

Pos	Player	Titles
1	/ Martina Navratilova	167
2	Chris Evert	154
3	Steffi Graf	107
4	Margaret Court	92
5	Evonne Goolagong Cawley	68
6	Billie Jean King	67
7	Lindsay Davenport*	55
7	Virginia Wade	55
9	/ Monica Seles	53
10	Martina Hingis	43
11	Justine Henin	41
12	Venus Williams*	36
13	Kim Clijsters	34
14	Conchita Martinez	33
15	Serena Williams*	31
* = active player

[edit] Most titles won in a year during the open era

Before 1990 (15 +):
1. 21 - Margaret Court (1970)
2. 18 - Margaret Court (1969, 1973)
3. 17 - Billie Jean King (1971)
4. 16 - Chris Evert (1974, 1975)
4. 16 - Martina Navratilova (1983)
6. 15 - Evonne Goolagong Cawley (1970)
6. 15 - Martina Navratilova (1982)

Since 1990 (8 +):
1. 12 - Martina Hingis (1997)
2. 10 - Steffi Graf (1990, 1993)
2. 10 - Monica Seles (1991, 1992)
2. 10 - Justine Henin (2007)
5. 09 - Monica Seles (1990)
5. 09 - Steffi Graf (1995)
5. 09 - Martina Hingis (2000)
5. 09 - Kim Clijsters (2003, 2005)
9. 08 - Steffi Graf (1992)
9. 08 - Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario (1994)
9. 08 - Serena Williams (2002)
9. 08 - Justine Henin (2003)

[edit] Oldest winners of a title during the open era

1. Billie Jean King: 39 yrs, 7 mos, 23 days (1983 Birmingham)
2. Martina Navratilova: 37 yrs, 4 mos, 2 days (1994 Paris Indoors)
3. Margaret Court: 34 yrs, 4 mos, 26 days (1976 Melbourne)

[edit] Youngest winners of a title during the open era

1. Tracy Austin: 14 yrs, 0 mos, 28 days (1977 Portland)
2. Kathy Rinaldi: 14 yrs, 6 mos, 24 days (1981 Kyoto)
3. Andrea Jaeger: 14 yrs, 7 mos, 14 days (1980 Las Vegas)

[edit] Most matches won during the open era

Pos	Player	Wins
1	/ Martina Navratilova	1,442
2	Chris Evert	1,304
3	Steffi Graf	902
4	Virginia Wade	839
5	Arantxa Sanchez Vicario	759
6	Lindsay Davenport*	750
7	Conchita Martínez	711
8	Evonne Goolagong Cawley	704
9	Billie Jean King	695
10	Gabriela Sabatini	632
11	Pam Shriver	625
12	Helena Sukova	614
13	Nathalie Tauziat	606
* = active player

[edit] Singles career win-loss ratio during the open era

Rank	Player	Wins	Losses	Ratio
1.	Chris Evert	1,304	144	.901
2.	Steffi Graf	902	115	.887
3.	/ Martina Navratilova	1,442	219	.868
4.	/ Monica Seles	595	122	.830
5.	Serena Williams*	380	80	.826
6.	Justine Henin	493	107	.821
7.	Maria Sharapova*	303	69	.815
8.	Venus Williams*	489	117	.807
9.	Martina Hingis	548	133	.805
10.	Kim Clijsters	427	104	.804
* = active player

Minimum of 25 tournaments played. The source for this table is the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) as of July 9, 2008. For reasons that the WTA does not explain, the list omits players such as Billie Jean King (.818 win ratio in 850 matches), Evonne Goolagong Cawley (.810 win ratio in 869 matches), and Margaret Court.

[edit] Grand Slam title leaders

[S=Singles; D=Doubles; MD= Mixed Doubles; A = never played in the event]

[edit] Earnings

• Career money leaders (as of April 14, 2008)

Rank	Player	Prize Money (US$)
1.	Lindsay Davenport*	22,050,839
2.	Steffi Graf	21,895,277
3.	/ Martina Navratilova	21,626,089
4.	Martina Hingis	20,130,657
5.	Justine Henin	19,461,375
6.	Serena Williams*	19,266,700
7.	Venus Williams*	18,556,982
8.	Arantxa Sanchez Vicario	16,942,640
9.	/ Monica Seles	14,891,762
10.	Kim Clijsters	14,764,296
* = active player

• As of April 7, 2008
  • 188 players have earned at least U.S. $1 million since 1970.
  • 34 players have earned at least U.S. $5 million since 1970.
  • 15 players have earned at least U.S. $10 million since 1970.
  • 8 players have earned at least U.S. $15 million dollars since 1970.
  • 4 players have earned at least U.S. $20 million dollars since 1970.

[edit] See also

• Tennis statistics
• Grand Slam (tennis)
• WTA Tour Championships
• List of WTA number 1 ranked players
• List of female tennis players
• Association of Tennis Professionals
• WTA Awards

[edit] External links

• The official Sony Ericsson WTA Tour web site
• Unofficial WTA Tour Message Board (Forum)
• WTA and ATP tournews and players
• WTA tour schedule