ITF

ITF Annual Review 2021 27 TOURS AND PLAYER PATHWAY The ITF has maintained a focus on the ITF World Tennis Tour as the lifeblood of interna onal tennis. It is the main artery into the ATP and WTA tours, and we are making improvements to ensure it maintains its success in helping players step up to the next level of the professional game. Recognising the importance of helping to reduce costs for players and ul mately enable more players to make a living from the sport, during Covid-19 the ITF Board of Directors approved significant funding to help raise prize money across 106 World Tennis Tour tournaments. Men's and women's events at the $15,000 level were elevated to $25,000, and women's $25,000 events li ed to $60,000. This helped safeguard the player pathway and ensured successful players had more support to be able to move up. On the men's tour, following research and collabora on between the ATP, ITF and the ITF's Player Panels (see below), from January 2022 the ATP increased the ATP ranking points at events with $25,000 and $15,000 prize money, enhancing the ability of players to move from ITF to ATP level events. Player input and feedback is essen al for the ongoing success of the ITF World Tennis Tour and a key part of the ITF2024 strategy. In April 2021, the ITF created new ITF World Tennis Tour Player Panels for athletes compe ng on the men's and The ITF Men's World Tennis Tour offers approximately 550 tournaments across 70 countries and incorporates two prize money levels of tournaments: $15,000 and $25,000 (known as M15 and M25 respectively). The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour also offers approximately 550 tournaments across 65 countries and incorporates five prize money levels of tournaments: $15,000, $25,000, $60,000, $80,000 and $100,000 (known as W15, W25, W60, W80 and W100 respectively). Tournaments at $15,000 level include reser ved spaces for Top 100-ranked ITF juniors, providing a smooth pathway for the best new talent to break through into professional tennis. DID YOU KNOW? ITF World Tennis Tour women's ITF World Tennis Tour. Panel members are elected by fellow players, and advise and make recommenda ons to the ITF World Tennis Tour Commi ee, which in turn reports to the ITF Board. The ITF has also improved the entry system for doubles players compe ng at men's $25,000 and women's $25,000 to $100,000 events, enabling them to enter in advance of tournaments. This not only helps player scheduling and travel costs, but also raises the profile of doubles events as players taking part will be known earlier. Enhancing the pathway In 2022 we'll con nue to work with our member Na onal Associa ons to stage approximately 1,000 tournaments, targe ng three new host countries compared to 2019, so that we can provide an even greater range of opportuni es for players from na ons worldwide. To provide more compe on and chances at the top level of the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, we will increase the number of $60,000, $80,000 and $100,000 tournaments from 2022. We're also con nuing to focus on enhancing the player experience by improving standards across all ITF World Tennis Tour tournaments, with ITF representa ves on site more o en.

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