Women's Tennis Association

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.

History

The predecessor of the WTA Tour, the Virginia Slims Circuit, was formed in September 1970, after nine tennis players, led by Billie Jean King, signed $1 contracts with Gladys Heldman of World Tennis publications. The other eight players who pledged to compete were Rosie Casals, Nancy Richey, Kerry Melville, Peaches Bartkowicz, Kristy Pigeon, Judy Dalton, Valerie Ziegenfuss, and Julie Heldman. Gladys Heldman, and a team that included associates of hers such as Joe Cullman, helped provide the foundation for what was the first women's professional tennis circuit. The Philip Morris cigarette brand, Virginia Slims, provided financial backing, and on September 23, 1970, the inaugral Virginia Slims of Houston was held, paving the way for many others of its kind. The circuit was comprised of 19 tournaments, all based in the United States (one in Puerto Rico),^[1] and there was a total prize money of $309,100 on offer.^[2]

The formation of the Virginia Slims Circuit can be ascribed in part to the changes that tennis was undergoing at the time, and the way in which prize monies were distributed. In the two years since the beginning of the open era, a large number of male players began playing professionally, and the tournaments that they competed in, often combined events, attracted increased investment. As a result of this, the International Lawn Tennis Association began dropping several women's competitions from the tournaments it presided over: in 1970, it sanctioned 15 tournaments, that had previously been combined events, as being for men only.^[3]

The WTA attributes a large part of its development to a meeting held the week before the 1973 Wimbledon Championships. The meeting, held at Gloucester Hotel in London, united all of women's professional tennis in one tour. King was the founder of this new institution. After this King, a mutiple Grand Slam champion, began to pursue other ventures, such as Women's Sports Foundation, a charitable organization that she founded in 1974 with her husband Larry King, and Jim Jorgensen.^[4] In 1975, the WTA increased its financial stature by signing a television broadcast contract with CBS, the first in the Association's history. Further financial developments ensued: in 1976, Colgate assumed sponsorship of the Tour from April to November, and in 1979, Avon replaced Virginia Slims as the sponsor of the winter circuit, and in its first year offered the largest prize fund for a single tournament, $100,000 for the WTA Tour Championships, in the Tour's history.^[2] The Colgate Series, renamed the Toyota Series in 1981, included tournaments from the across the world, whereas the Avon sponsored events took place solely in the US. The two circuits were merged in the 1983 season, when Virginia Slims returned to take full sponsorship rights of the Tour; every tournament under the administration of the WTA now became part of the Virginia Slims World Championships Series.^[1][2]

The Tour continued to expand during these years. By 1980, over 250 women were playing professionally, and the Tour consisted of 47 global events, offering a total of $7.2 m in prize money. These increased financial opportunities allowed for groundbreaking developments not only in tennis, but across women's sports: in 1971, King became the first female athlete to surpass $100,000 in earnings for a single season;^[1][4] Chris Evert became the female athlete to win over $1,000,000 in career earnings in 1976; and Martina Navratilova became the first to win over $1,000,000 in a single season in 1982. Navratilova's single season earnings exceeded $2 m in 1984; in 1997, Martina Hingis became the first to earn over $3 m over the course of season; in 2003, Kim Clijsters surpassed $4 m for a season. In 2006 there was a major push by the WTA with players such as Venus Williams for equal prize money to men, at both the French Open and at Wimbledon.The 2007 season was an historic one with both of the last Grand Slams relenting and awarding equal money for the first time this then enabled Justine Henin who won the French Open in that season to earn over $5 m, becoming the first woman in sports to do this.^[5] Henin retired in 2008, becoming the first incumbent World No. 1 in the WTA rankings to do so.^[6]

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 nine (9) Tier I Tournaments.
   2. Tier II (minimum prize money of $600,000): There are fourteen (14) Tier II Tournaments.
   3. Tier III(minimum prize money of $175,000): There are eighteen (18) Tournaments in this Tier.
   4. Tier IV (minimum prize money of $145,000): There are thirteen (13) Tournaments in this Tier.

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

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 Miami Masters, 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.

WTA Rankings

WTA Rankings (10 November 2008)
Rk	Name	Nation	Points	+/-
1	Jelena Janković	SRB	4,710	▬
2	Serena Williams	USA	3,866	▲+1
3	Dinara Safina	RUS	3,817	▼-1
4	Elena Dementieva	RUS	3,663	▲+1
5	Ana Ivanović	SRB	3,457	▼-1
6	Venus Williams	USA	3,272	▲+2
7	Vera Zvonareva	RUS	2,952	▲+2
8	Svetlana Kuznetsova	RUS	2,726	▼-1
9	Maria Sharapova	RUS	2,515	▼-3
10	Agnieszka Radwańska	POL	2,286	▬
11	Nadia Petrova	RUS	1,976	▬
12	Caroline Wozniacki	DEN	1,678	▲+1
13	Flavia Pennetta	ITA	1,670	▲+1
14	Patty Schnyder	SUI	1,590	▲+1
15	Victoria Azarenka	BLR	1,494	▲+2
16	Alizé Cornet	FRA	1,492	▲+2
17	Marion Bartoli	FRA	1,410	▼-1
18	Anna Chakvetadze	RUS	1,363	▼-6
19	Dominika Cibulková	SVK	1,337	▲+1
20	Katarina Srebotnik	SLO	1,272	▲+1

Records

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*	39
13	Kim Clijsters	34
14	Conchita Martínez	33
15	Serena Williams*	32
16	Tracy Austin	30
* = active player

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 Sánchez Vicario (1994)
9. 08 - Serena Williams (2002)
9. 08 - Justine Henin (2003)

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)

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)

Most matches won during the open era

Pos	Player	Wins
1	/ Martina Navratilova	1,442
2	Chris Evert	1,304
3	Steffi Graf	900
4	Virginia Wade	839
5	Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	759
6	Lindsay Davenport*	753
7	Conchita Martínez	711
8	Evonne Goolagong Cawley	704
9	Billie Jean King	695
10	Gabriela Sabatini	632
11	Pam Shriver	625
12	Helena Suková	614
13	Nathalie Tauziat	606
* = active player

Singles career win-loss ratio during the open era

Rank	Player	Wins	Losses	Ratio
1.	Chris Evert	1,304	144	.901
2.	Steffi Graf	900	115	.887
3.	/ Martina Navratilova	1,442	219	.868
4.	/ Monica Seles	595	122	.830
5.	Serena Williams*	399	85	.824
6.	Justine Henin	493	107	.821
7.	Maria Sharapova*	305	70	.813
8.	Venus Williams*	515	121	.810
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.

Grand Slam title leaders

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

Earnings

• Career money leaders (as of November 10, 2008)

Rank	Player	Prize Money (US$)
1.	Lindsay Davenport*	22,144,735
2.	Serena Williams*	21,961,407
3.	Venus Williams*	21,921,346
4.	Steffi Graf	21,895,277
5.	/ Martina Navratilova	21,626,089
6.	Martina Hingis	20,130,657
7.	Justine Henin	19,461,375
8.	Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	16,942,640
9.	/ Monica Seles	14,891,762
10.	Kim Clijsters	14,764,296
* = active player

• As of November 3rd, 2008
  • 201 players have earned at least U.S. $1 million since 1970.
  • 39 players have earned at least U.S. $5 million since 1970.
  • 16 players have earned at least U.S. $10 million since 1970.
  • 8 players have earned at least U.S. $15 million dollars since 1970.
  • 6 players have earned at least U.S. $20 million dollars since 1970.

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

References

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

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