The ATP Tour is going fan friendly from 2007.

Fans First as ATP Primed for Finale, '07 Changes
The ATP, governing body of the men’s professional tennis circuit, previously announced changes for 2007 intended to help the sport achieve broader appeal.
The 2007 plans include

elimination of best-of-5 set finals at all but a few ATP events to ensure player health and enhance TV scheduling

Additionally in 2007, ATP tournaments will feature best-of-3-sets matches including finals, a change to ensure player health throughout the season. The shorter length of the match also will benefit broadcasters by offering an entertainment product with a more predictable, reasonable length. Eleven tournaments with best-of-5-set finals this past season will move to best-of-3 in 2007: Barcelona, Basel, Gstaad, Kitzbuhel, Stuttgart, Vienna and the ATP Masters Series events in Hamburg, Madrid, Monte-Carlo, Paris, and Rome. ATP Tennis Masters Series tournaments Pacific Life Open and Sony Ericsson Open will maintain their five-set finals for 2007.

Sunday starts to build Opening Weekends at ATP tournaments

ATP tournaments also will phase in Sunday starts incorporating singles and doubles matches, pro-ams, charity events and family activities. In addition to a number of the round robin events, two ATP Masters Series tournaments have been chosen to utilize a Sunday Start program in 2007: Masters Series Monte-Carlo (April 15-22, 2007) and Rogers Masters in Montreal (August 5-12, 2007).

testing of round robin formats

The 2007 ATP season will feature 64 tournaments in 30 countries. ATP tournaments will test three different round robin formats (24-, 32- and 48-player draws) at select circuit events, and guarantee fans the opportunity to see their favorite players more than once during the week while improving scheduling for broadcasters and tournament promoters.

Round robin—where players are placed into groups or pools, and the top player in each group then moves on to the knockout phase of the tournament—increases spectators’ chances of seeing their favorite stars, as one loss in a round-robin pool does not automatically eliminate a player, and also improves scheduling for broadcasters and tournament promotion. Round robin has been a staple of the Tennis Masters Cup circuit finale and ARAG ATP World Team Championship but not utilized at any other ATP tournament. The 13 tournaments chosen subject to final approval by the ATP will be held on different surfaces in different countries throughout the 2007 season, starting the first week in Adelaide, Australia.

ATP World No. 2 Rafael Nadal said: “I have said it at our meetings with Etienne, I think this is a great idea. Finally we really move forward and we do something really good for our sport. This will be good for our tournaments, for us the players and especially for fans and television since they will be able to have and see their favorite players more than once for sure.”


“The round robin format is a fan friendly format,” said former ATP World No. 1 Jim Courier, who has played under the round robin format in senior events and previously in the ATP circuit finale. “I am pleased the ATP will bring this format to their tour next year. It's another step forward to understanding the fans’ needs and making tennis tournaments more accessible for them.”

The ATP will conduct its one-year trial testing the three following formats:

· A 24-player round robin draw consisting of 8 groups of 3 players. Each player will then play two guaranteed matches in the round robin stage. The winner from each group will advance to the knockout round (quarterfinals), and then will play out the tournament per a traditional single-elimination format.

· A 32-player round robin draw consisting of a 16-player “play-off” with the 8 winners joining 16 other players to make up the 8 groups of 3 players. Each player will then play two guaranteed matches in the round robin stage. The winner from each group will advance to the knockout round (quarterfinals), and then will play out the tournament per a traditional single-elimination format.

· A 48-player round robin draw consisting of 16 groups of 3 players. Each player will then play two guaranteed matches in the round robin stage. The winner from each group will advance to the knockout round (round of 16), and then will play out the tournament per a traditional single-elimination format.

The 13 tournaments testing round robin in 2007, subject to final ATP and tournament agreement, will be (listed chronologically):
· Next Generation Adelaide International; Adelaide, Australia; 32-player round robin; hard court outdoors
· Movistar Open; Viña del Mar, Chile; 24-player round robin; clay court outdoors
· Delray Beach International Tennis Championships; Delray Beach, Florida; 32-player round robin; hard court outdoors
· Copa Telmex; Buenos Aires, Argentina; 32-player round robin; clay court outdoors
· Tennis Channel Open; Las Vegas, Nevada; 32-player round robin; hard court outdoors
· Estoril Open; Estoril, Portugal; 32-player round robin; clay court outdoors
· The Stella Artois Championships; London, United Kingdom; 48-player round robin; grass court outdoors
· Catella Swedish Open; Båstad, Sweden; 32-player round robin; clay court outdoors
· Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships; Newport, Rhode Island; 24-player round robin; grass court outdoors
· RCA Championships; Indianapolis, Indiana; 32-player round robin; hard court outdoors
· ATP Studena Croatia Open, Umag, Croatia; 32-player round robin; clay court outdoors
· Legg Mason Tennis Classic; Washington, D.C.; 48-player round robin; hard court outdoors
· If Stockholm Open; Stockholm, Sweden; 32-player round robin; hard court indoors

increased prize money

Next season, the ATP also will implement its first across-the-board prize money increase since 2000. All International Series Gold and International Series tournaments currently at the minimum prize money level will pay 10 percent more in 2007.

new multi-million dollar marketing fund

all other ATP tournaments will fund a marketing program expected to be near $5 million in its first year. The total financial commitment from ATP and Grand Slam tournaments next season is expected to rise to nearly $100 million.

player challenge system (video review)

its some thing like third umpire in cricket, but it really adds the dimension to live telecast and also creates interest and confidence boosting.

The player challenge system, which utilizes video review for close line calls, has been received enthusiastically worldwide in 2006 by fans, players, sponsors and broadcasters after first introduced in Miami in March. The system also was used throughout the summer US Open Series tournaments before moving to ATP tournaments in Beijing, Moscow and the two final ATP Masters Series events, the Mutua Madrilena Masters Madrid and BNP Paribas Masters in Paris.



It will be used for the first time at the men’s circuit season-ending championship when it makes its debut in Shanghai. The Mercedes-Benz Official Review at the Tennis Masters Cup will utilize the same limited review system successfully utilized at all previous tournaments.

“I like everything about it,” said American Andy Roddick, who makes his third appearance at the Tennis Masters Cup. “I think it's great for the fans. I think it adds another dimension to watching it on TV, that three- or four-second clip where you see the ball going through, the crowd (goes) ooohhh...I think it's good.”

Through twelve events, 1,141 total player challenges have been made on the ATP circuit, an average of 3.21 per match. Players have been correct on 38 percent of the challenges (1.22 per match). Out of the eight Tennis Masters Cup singles qualifiers, Ljubicic has been the most accurate on his calls, challenging correctly 16 of 20 times (80 percent).

The three biggest events to start the 2007 season – Australian Open in January and the ATP Masters Series tournaments Pacific Life Open (Indian Wells) and Sony Ericsson Open (Miami) in March – will use the player challenge system.

ATP Doubles Revolution

ATP doubles stars gained greater support and exposure than ever in 2006, as the ATP signed Stanford Financial Group as the Official Sponsor of ATP Doubles and launched a promotional campaign designed to celebrate the team game. A graffiti theme representing the “ATP Doubles Revolution” created a unique look featured on player gear, advertisements and ATPtennis.com.

The Bryan brothers, who last week clinched the Stanford ATP Doubles Race to finish the year as the ATP World No. 1 team, launched the Revolution in February with a New York City media blitz.

Mike Bryan said: "There have been lots of center court matches, televised matches, posters, draws and rankings posted and publicized, hats, t-shirts, doubles social get-togethers, a doubles court at the US Open’s Arthur Ashe Kid’s Day, a whirlwind media blitz in New York City and a ringing of the closing bell at the NY Stock Exchange. And there have been some unbelievably exciting and well-played doubles matches! It has been a great year for doubles all around.”

The new doubles format featuring no-ad scoring and a Match Tie-break proved a hit with fans during the regular ATP season, with larger audiences exposed to the team game. Matches averaged 71 minutes – 16 less than its 2005 average – providing for better scheduling and more showcasing of doubles on feature courts. Through the end of the regular ATP season, 381 matches were scheduled on center court – a 36 percent increase from 2005. Additionally, the new format attracted 15 percent more singles players to “double dip” by playing both singles and doubles at tournaments.

Tennis on the ‘Net

Another area of focus for the ATP in 2007 will be digital media. ATPtennis.com set a new traffic record in October when it welcomed 580,591 unique visitors during the Mutua Madrilena Masters Madrid. The Web site attracted more than 1.7 million user sessions as fans registered more than 9 million page impressions.

The world’s No. 1 online tennis destination also broke through two other significant milestones during Madrid. For the 10 months of the year through October 22, ATPtennis.com had served a monthly average of 1.6 million unique visitors and hosted a year-to-date total of 51.4 million user sessions. That represents respective increases of 37 percent and 43 percent on last year.