General Info

The ATP Tour is the elite tour for professional tennis organised by the ATP. The ATP Tour includes four Grand Slam tournaments, the Tennis Masters Cup, the ATP Masters Series, the International Series Gold and the International Series tournaments. In 1988, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the men's professional tennis players' association, used a parking lot at the U.S. Open to announce that they would assume control of the game. It was a gesture as symbolic as it was strategic. It was the defining moment in the evolution from the ATP, formed in 1972 under the leadership of superstar Jack Kramer, to the ATP Tour, the governing body of the worldwide men's professional tennis circuit. Eighty-five of the Top 100 ranked players signed a letter of support for a new tour within weeks after the news conference. By the fall of 1988, 24 top players had signed contracts to play on the ATP Tour, which began operation in January of 1990. ATP Tour is headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.