ATP raises prize money to a record level: Win one tournament, spend it all your life!

For the first time in history, the prize money of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in the upcoming 2015 season will exceed 100 million USD.

From now on, winners of tournaments in the ATP system will receive unprecedented prize money.

Recently, ATP announced the new prize money for the next season, accordingly, the total prize money for tennis players in ATP tournaments large and small exceeded 100 million USD. The biggest change comes from ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments (accounting for 14%). Meanwhile, ATP World Tour 250 tournaments only increased by a modest 3%. ATP World Tour 500 tournaments have had their prize money increased since the end of last year.

According to ATP leaders, with the momentum and efforts to create a more competitive atmosphere, the amount of prize money that ATP is willing to pay out could reach 135 million USD a year by around 2018. In the latest announcement, ATP said: "The recent increase in ATP tournaments is a testament to the longevity and success of the world men's tennis. It also shows the ATP's confidence in the product and its long-term plans for the coming years."

In addition to this event, ATP also announced the competition schedule from the 2016 to 2018 season. That shows that in the next 4 years, there will be no changes in prize money and competition dates.

ATP stands for Association of Tennis Professionals, founded in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer and Cliff Drysdale to protect the interests of male tennis players. Drysdale became the first president of the tournament.

Since 1990, the association has organized world tours for male tennis players and assigned its name to part of the tours. In that year, fans were introduced to the ATP Tour. In 2001, the leaders of the organization decided to change the name, calling all tournaments during the year simply ATP. However, in 2009, the name change took place again and this time, as we know, the tournaments are called under the general name ATP World Tour.

The ATP's headquarters are in London, UK. The ATP's US headquarters are in Ponte Vedra Beach, its European headquarters are in Monaco, and its international headquarters (which covers Africa, Asia, and Australia) are in Sydney, Australia. The ATP World Tour consists of four Grand Slam tournaments, nine Masters 1000 tournaments, 11 ATP 500 Series tournaments, 40 ATP 250 Series tournaments, 178 ATP Challenge Tour tournaments, and one ATP World Tour Finals tournament at the end of each year, which features the top eight players according to the ATP rankings.

Roger Federer is the most successful tennis player in ATP history with 17 Grand Slam titles, 6 ATP World Tour Finals titles, and 82 other major and minor titles. The leader in terms of the number of wins is the legendary Jimmy Connors with 1,253 matches, Ivan Lendl is second with 1,071 matches, Federer is third with 996 matches.

According to thethaovanhoa