2007 ATP Tour


The ATP Tour is the elite tour for professional tennis organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The ATP Tour includes the four Grand Slam tournaments, the Tennis Masters Cup, the ATP Masters Series, the International Series Gold and the International Series tournaments.

Round-robin trial

In August 2006 the ATP announced that it would conduct a trial of the round-robin tournament format during the 2007 season. ATP Executive Chairman Etienne De Villiers claimed their research showed a preference for this tournament setup among fans, tournaments and media. In a round-robin tournament each player competes once against every other player in his group. The only men's tournament using this format was the season-ending event but all regular tournaments, including the Grand Slams, used the traditional elimination or knock-out system. The round-robin format would be tested at 13 events during the 2007 ATP Tour but the Masters Series events and the Grand Slam tournaments were excluded from the experiment. The Adelaide International was scheduled as the pilot. Initial reactions from players were mixed, with Rafael Nadal in favor of the scheme and Roger Federer opposed. In early March 2007 at the Las Vegas Channel Open there was controversy when the ATP decided that James Blake had qualified for the quarterfinals only to revert that decision hours later. Player reactions became increasingly negative, claiming the format was confusing and could enable match-fixing. On 21 March 2007 the ATP announced that it had abandoned the experiment and had decided that the remaining scheduled round-robin tournaments would revert to the single-elimination form.

Schedule

The table below shows the 2007 ATP Tour schedule
;Key
Grand Slam tournaments
Tennis Masters Cup
ATP Masters Series
ATP International Series Gold
ATP International Series
Team events

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

ATP rankings

Points were awarded as follows:
+H: Any Challenger or Futures providing hospitality shall receive the points of the next highest prize
money level in that category. $/€25,000+H Challengers receive points shown at$/€50,000. Monies
shown for Challengers and Futures are on-site prize amounts.
: 5 points only if the Main Draw is larger than 32 or 64
In addition to the points allocated above, points are allocated to losers at Grand Slam, Tennis Masters Series and
International Series Gold Tournaments qualifying events in the following manner:
: 3 points only if the Main Draw is larger than 32 or 64.

Statistics

Titles won by player

Winners/runners-up by country:
#CountryWinsRunners-up
1. Spain1312
2. Switzerland86
3. France78
4. Argentina74
5. Croatia53
6. Serbia52
7. USA47
8. Russia42
9. Belgium31
10. Great Britain22
11. Germany21
12. Czech Republic20
13. Chile13
14. Cyprus12
15. Australia11
16. Peru10
17. Italy04
18. Austria03
19. Romania02
20. Sweden03
Netherlands01
Sweden01
Canada01

ATP prize money leaders

Retirements

Following is a list of notable players or top 50 who announced their retirement from professional tennis, became inactive, or were permanently banned from playing, during the 2007 season: