From print outs on gigantic paper sheets and late-night telephone calls chasing outcomes to at the moment’s real-time system, straight off a Chair Umpire’s digital scorecard, the Pepperstone ATP Rankings have been an indispensable barometer connecting each stage {of professional} tennis since its debut on 23 August 1973.
Just as tennis skilled a wide-spread expertise revolution, in how racquets and balls are manufactured, and court docket surfaces are ready, 50 years in the past at the moment, the Pepperstone ATP Rankings offered an mental revolution that rapidly earned legitimacy and credibility amongst gamers, tournaments and followers. Incredibly, to-date, solely 28 legendary performers have reached the common aim of any tennis participant; what children dream of, and professionals battle tooth and nail for: to turn out to be the No. 1 on the planet. And fewer nonetheless, simply 18, have completed the season as year-end No. 1.
Without the foresight of ATP founding fathers, the rankings panorama might look totally totally different. From the daybreak of Open Era tennis in April 1968, rankings have been largely a subjective calculation, generated by nationwide tennis associations, circuits and quite a few eminent tennis journalists who compiled their very own lists.
“Tingay’s was actually the one one which counted,” recollects former ATP European Director and acclaimed tennis author Richard Evans, referring to the rankings produced by The Daily Telegraph’s Lance Tingay. “National Associations produced their very own rankings, which meant that match committees tried to safe the No. 1 participant from every nation,” remembers John Barrett, a former participant and ATP Board member. “The main championships permitted associations to appoint 4 gamers from their nation.”
Jack Kramer (left) and Cliff Drysdale. Photo Credit: PA Images by way of Getty Images
Yet right away, match entries decided by discretion have been consigned to historical past. Before the arrival of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, it was all low tech and with no actual goal, as tournaments invited gamers on the premise of their popularity as Stan Smith, the World No. 1 in 1971-72, highlights. “The historical past main as much as the rating system included a ‘star system’ so far as entries into the tournaments. Some gamers can be on a listing as gamers that might assist promote tickets for the occasion and they’d have precedence over others in acceptance into tournaments. This triggered nice concern for people who didn’t have a giant identify and have been borderline entering into occasions. There have been positively some battles with tournaments over this ‘star system’.
“I keep in mind enjoying in Philadelphia and [Pancho] Gonzales was bringing extra individuals into the occasion, so he was the highest seed. The gamers that introduced extra spectators to the match have been seeded, so the match had probably the most well-known gamers and never essentially the perfect gamers.” Bob Kramer provides, “Tournament attracts usually featured eight gamers primarily based on home nationwide rankings, eight gamers primarily based on a global rating and a handful of different gamers worthy of acceptance.”
By August 1972, it grew to become clear that the newly created Association of Tennis Professionals wanted to determine a rating system free of non-public opinion and prejudice. “Jack Kramer, the primary Executive Director of the ATP, needed prize cash solely tournaments and never occasions that supplied ensures to gamers – as had occurred within the ‘shamateur’ period of the previous decade, if you have been invited on popularity,” provides Barrett. Smith remembers, “The rating system was a scorching level for the gamers and it continued to be crucial. The ATP felt that it needed to manage the rating program and never let the ITF or anybody else management it.”
Arthur Ashe (left) and Donald Dell. Photo Credit: Herbert Capwell/The Boston Globe by way of Getty Images
Chris Lewis remembers, “I’d write letters to Tournament Directors informing them of my outcomes to-date and people Tournament Directors can be weighing up and measuring these outcomes towards different gamers who’d written in. At the top of the day, Tournament Directors would make an arbitrary choice over which gamers have been in and those that have been out. When the ATP Rankings have been launched, they have been universally accepted because the ‘best factor ever’. Now that the subjectivity was moved and as a replacement was whole objectivity. The rankings system was goal and in sport you’ll be able to’t argue with outcomes: somebody wins, and somebody loses.”
Working with the primary ATP President, Cliff Drysdale, Jack Kramer sought assist from the ATP Board together with Arthur Ashe, Jim McManus and Charlie Pasarell, and acquired particular enter from Owen Davidson, Mike Estep, Fred McNair, Sherwood Stewart and others to plot a sensible pc rating that offered a good evaluation of a participant’s efficiency in addition to an goal means to find out entries into match. “We didn’t need the pc for use as a solution to incentivise a participant to enter any explicit match,” says Drysdale. “In different phrases, to purely be a solution to rank gamers based on capability. Nothing extra. In these early days we additionally gave factors weighted based on the rating of gamers he beat. So if you happen to beat a seed, you bought extra factors.”
Twelve months after the ATP was based, Ilie Nastase grew to become the primary No. 1. He was amongst 186 gamers to be listed within the first ‘ATP International Player Rankings’ of Monday, 23 August 1973, produced and printed out on gigantic pc paper by TRW Inc., a serious aerospace firm, in El Segundo on Santa Monica Bay. Bob Kramer would take drawsheets from world wide, create a listing of the gamers and meticulously calculate their factors earned from his West Pico Boulevard workplace in Los Angeles. Dennis Spencer, who changed Bob Kramer on Pepperstone ATP Rankings obligation in December 1975, says, “Bob made an settlement with a man from TRW to course of the rankings. Most journalists thought that made sense as a result of of their minds the ATP Rankings would possibly as effectively have been from outer house!”
Ilie Nastase was the primary World No. 1 within the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Photo Credit: AFP/AFP by way of Getty Images
Bob Kramer recollects, “I struck a cope with Simon Ramo of TRW to supply a useful resource primarily based on a factors system to determine the rankings, which was one of many key rules behind the founding of the ATP in 1972. Ramo was a famend physicist, engineer, and LA business chief/founder and the ‘R’ in aerospace manufacturing legend, TRW. As tennis fanatic, neighbour and a good friend of Jack Kramer’s, he ‘loaned’ us the pc time and initially one among his pc engineers, Bob Kurle, to assist ATP run the rankings information every month and finally, weekly.
“Administered by a panel of individuals, tournaments have been initially divided into classes – A, B, C, and so forth. – which enabled occasion organisers to pick the gamers based on their ATP Ranking and decide seedings. I offered the match outcomes and associated info to Bob Kurle.” Kurle then imputed the information right into a server the scale of the primary flooring of the ATP Americas workplace in Ponte Vedra Beach [2,020 square metres]. “Within three days, Simon and Bob returned the rankings on enormous perforated sheets. I keep in mind placing ATP Rankings sheets from flooring to ceiling, week after week on the partitions of our LA workplace. I’d double verify outcomes, circle inaccuracies and, if required, returned the sheets to TRW for a re-run. Because the ATP produced the rankings as soon as a month within the first few years, we had the time for the handbook course of, in contrast to at the moment.”
Spencer confirms Bob Kramer’s reminiscences, however insists that, “There have been many weeks when for no matter purpose the ‘pc’ didn’t work so I did the rankings by hand. I’d print the earlier rankings out on the big pc paper, lay it out on my front room flooring, get on my fingers and knees to mark out the week(s) that have been dropping off, add the brand new outcomes and calculate the brand new rankings.”
Stan Smith. Photo Credit: Roger Jackson/Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
In 1973 and till the launch of the International Tennis Weekly, with the version of 9-15 January 1976 – after ATP headquarters had moved to Dallas following the departure of Executive Director Jack Kramer – the most recent rankings have been distributed internally and posted on press and locker room partitions – after the ATP acquired permission from the tournaments!
Finishing because the year-end No. 1 within the Pepperstone ATP Rankings had status and there was on the spot recognition amongst gamers, who used to attend hours, generally days to see their rating. “Prior to the Weekly, every now and then, if you happen to have been at dwelling, gamers would place a phone name to an ATP workplace, or we’d obtain a slip of paper within the put up informing us of our rating,” recollects Smith. If Jim McManus or one other member of the ATP Board arrived with an International Tennis Weekly, he would get besieged by different gamers. “Any participant studying an ITW would get mobbed, as on the time it was usually the one solution to discover out your rating and different pertinent match info,” says Dennis Spencer, an ATP Tour Manager and Publicity Director from 1975-79.
In future years, after 11 points in 1973, the Pepperstone ATP Rankings began to be revealed with better frequency – 1974 (11), 1975 (13), 1976 (23), 1977 (34), 1978 (40) – till 1979, once they have been produced on a weekly foundation, 43 instances that season. Then, simply as now for two,053 gamers, there was actual satisfaction in being on the 52-week rolling skilled tennis ladder. The ATP ranked doubles gamers for the primary time on 1 March 1976.
With the creation of the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings — launched in May 2022 — a dynamic characteristic enabling followers, gamers and media to trace the real-time rankings and influence of match outcomes day-to-day, the system continues to function a real measure of excellence. It was probably the most important addition to the ATP’s Rankings properties for the reason that 2000 introduction of the calendar-year Race, serving to monitor gamers’ journeys to qualify for the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals.
Pete Sampras first grew to become World No. 1 in 1993. Photo Credit: Doug Collier/AFP by way of Getty Images
For years, the ATP Supervisor’s pc was up to date by means of reside scoring and on the finish of every week, the ATP Supervisor offers the ATP Rankings Coordinator with information from their respective tournaments. The info continues to be verified Sunday evening (ET) in a database, from which every little thing from the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Lexus ATP Head2Headvert information and match statistics are generated and made accessible by way of ATPTour.com on Sunday evening or within the early hours of Monday, relying on when the final match of the week finishes.
It’s a far cry from the times when early Pepperstone ATP Rankings crunchers, Bob Kramer and Spencer, used to spend their Sundays pouring over the enormous print outs equipped by rocket people at TRW, and calling round tournaments desperately searching for outcomes and even attracts. “Initially, we might obtain outcomes and draw sheets by postal mail,” says Bob Kramer. “Sometimes we must phone to confirm {that a} match had even taken place!” Spencer recollects, “Often, I’d name and name till somebody at a match picked up the telephone to inform me who received. Sometimes the rankings weren’t finalised till after Monday evening tennis within the United States. “Then we despatched the ITW off to the printers,” provides Spencer. “We had a Western Union telex within the Dallas workplace, so a number of instances every week I’d kind out a telex tape with the rankings, attracts, outcomes, and so forth and transmit it world wide.” Each Friday, the ITW can be distributed at tournaments.
Weller Evans, former Tour Manager and ATP Executive Director, Player Relations, stated: “Every participant who earned a prize cash cheque previously 50 years ought to admire the importance and rejoice the creation of the ATP World Rankings with gratitude. Beginning in 1973, now not was his employment standing for the week primarily based upon the discretion of match administrators. Instead, a very goal system of benefit decided whether or not he performed or not, with out regard for some other elements besides his efficiency on the courts. Where in different sports activities, a coach determines your enjoying time – and finally your livelihood – due to the ATP World Rankings, tennis is usually cruelly however all the time coldly goal.”
The ATP International Player Rankings [now named Pepperstone ATP Rankings] of 23 August 1973 have been initially a mean system, with the factors accrued over a 52-week interval divided by the variety of tournaments performed (minimal divisor of 12, the variety of tournaments participant management at the moment felt certified a participant as a ‘full-time’ skilled). Tournaments have been awarded factors primarily based on prize cash (minimal of $25,000), draw measurement and energy of area. The merit-based system was backed by the gamers, and the typical system underwent additional tweaks in 1986.
Bonus factors, an concept devised by former ATP European Director Richard Evans, Fred McNair, Sherwood Stewart, Owen Davidson and Raymond Moore in a St. Petersburg, Florida, lodge room, have been awarded for beating seeded gamers. This was amended in 1983, when the bonus factors have been primarily based on the rating of the participant defeated – first the Top 75, then expanded to Top 150. “Players bought factors for beating prime ranked gamers, it doesn’t matter what the spherical,” recollects Richard Evans. The bonus factors system ran from 1973 till the top of the 1999 ATP Tour season.
The International Tennis Federation had carried out discussions a few rankings system of its personal early within the Open Era. “The ITF did realise the facility of ATP factors and there was discuss of a competing rating,” says Cliff Drysdale, the primary ATP President. “But I do not assume it lasted lengthy and the ATP Rankings have been fairly rapidly accepted by the sport and the gamers. There was a whole lot of dialogue concerning the particulars of the system, however not the final want for it.”
Spencer, the ATP’s first full-time paid worker on 1 June 1975, admits, “Some tournaments have been delighted to have a reliable solution to decide their acceptances whereas others beloved the previous the place they might resolve unilaterally what gamers have been enjoying of their tournaments. Most gamers accepted the ATP Rankings, however there was controversy initially about what they have been for. Were they to recognise the perfect participant of the yr? Or was it for the perfect participant of the week, fortnight or one year a yr?”
Novak Djokovic has been year-end World No. 1 a document seven instances. Credit: Clive Brunskill
Stan Smith, a number one participant all through the Seventies, offers a participant’s perspective. “The most important concern of people who helped to form the rating system was that it’s a good reflection of the outcomes. There was a substantial amount of dialog and tweaking in the course of the adolescence as to the burden of the varied tournaments and even the burden of the rounds within the tournaments. The prize cash per spherical was additionally debated together with the rating factors. But all of the gamers have been on the identical web page as to the significance of it for the sport. It was maybe a very powerful asset of the ATP as we established our union and helped a wholesome development of the sport.”
The ATP recognised that the ‘common system’ had two flaws. First, a participant may keep at dwelling and never play; let his poor outcomes from the earlier yr drop off and watch his rating rise with out hitting a ball. A prime participant may additionally play a small occasion (maybe as a result of he wanted the extra match play or it was good preparation for upcoming bigger occasions), win the match and really see his rating go down if he had a excessive sufficient common. In normal, it actually didn’t encourage enjoying on something aside from your favorite floor.
To tackle these considerations, the brand new ATP Tour in 1990 launched the ‘Best of 14’ rating system, the place a participant’s greatest 14 outcomes from the earlier 52 weeks counted in the direction of his rating. The emphasis was subsequently positioned squarely on profitable and the damaging impact of an early loss in a match was much less speedy and impactful. Weller Evans says, “I consider the genesis of this technique might have come from the Swiss participant Heinz Gunthardt and his familiarity with downhill snowboarding, the place solely a sure variety of greatest runs ‘counted’.” In addition, now factors have been awarded to classes of tournaments: Grand Slams, Championship Series [now ATP Masters 1000 and ATP 500s], World Series [now ATP 250s] and Challengers, with prize cash ranges inside every.
In 2000, to additional encourage participation on the Grand Slams and the ATP’s premier collection of 9 tournaments [now known as ATP Masters 1000s], the rating system started to rely 18 occasions for many gamers. All 13 outcomes on the majors and ATP Masters 1000s would rely, as would a participant’s greatest 5 performances on the 5 International Series occasions [now ATP 250s and 500s].
This system, for probably the most half in impact at the moment, discovered a center floor the place year-long participation is inspired whereas sustaining the integrity of the competitors at tennis’ best occasions. As Charlie Pasarell, who so {many professional} tennis gamers should thank, insists, “The ATP Rankings modified every little thing.
“In August 1973, probably the most deserving, certified gamers that entered occasions no matter their nationality have been assured participation. This was the largest influence of the ATP Rankings to the worldwide tour. Now, the general public have been watching the perfect gamers that needed to play in tournaments; an important ingredient to the credibility of the game’s competitions. Likewise, for seeding gamers, which would supply honest attracts primarily based on efficiency. Finally, it gave the game a system to pick our No. 1 participant, our No. 2 participant and so forth. All of the above have been the motivations and the reason why the ATP created the rating system. All of the gamers within the early Seventies contributed to the method and consequently backed it 100 per cent.”
Today because the ATP celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, media and followers cannot solely watch and observe their favorite gamers’ outcomes and their fluctuations in kind, but additionally their world rating in real-time. Says Pasarell, “A great way to analyse the numerous influence of the ATP Rankings, is to verify how tournaments decided their entries into their attracts 50 years in the past and examine that to now.” In establishing an goal merit-based rating system on 23 August 1973, the ATP’s founding fathers, and their grand imaginative and prescient helped lay the foundations for the game’s development that we all know at the moment.
Carlos Alcaraz with the ATP Year-End No. 1 introduced by Pepperstone trophy in 2022. Photo Credit: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour
Source: www.atptour.com