Tennis
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1.ATP Tour
In an effort to protect the interest of male professional tennis players, the ATP or the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Bob Briner, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale, who became its first president.
Since 1990, the association has organized the worldwide tennis tour for men and linked the title of the tour with the organization's name. In 1990, the organization was called the ATP Tour, which was renamed in 2001 as just ATP and the tour being called ATP Tour. In 2009, the name was changed again and is now known as the ATP World Tour. It is an evolution of the tour competitions previously known as Grand Prix tennis tournaments and World Championship Tennis (WCT).
2.Global presence
The ATP's global headquarters are in London, United Kingdom while the ATP Americas is based in Ponte Vedra Beach in the United States. The ATP Europe is headquartered in Monaco, the ATP International, which covers Africa, Asia, and Australasia, is based in Sydney, Australia. Currently, Chris Kermode is the current Executive Chairman and President of ATP while Mark Young works as CEO of Americas, David Massey is the CEO of Europe while Alison Lee leads the International group.
The seven-member ATP Board of Directors includes the Executive Chairman & President along with three tournament representatives, Gavin Forbes, Mark Webster and Charles Smith.
It also includes three player representatives with three-year terms, Giorgio di Palermo as the European representative, David Egdes as the International representative and Justin Gimelstob as the Americas representative. The player representatives are elected by the ATP Player Council
3.The WTA Tour
Founded by Billie Jean King in 1973, the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women.
The WTA was founded in the month of June 1973, but traces its origins to the inaugural Virginia Slims tournament, arranged by Gladys Heldman, and held on 23 September 1970 at the Houston Racquet Club in Houston, Texas. Rosie Casals won this first event.
The WTA's corporate headquarters is in St. Petersburg, Florida, with its European headquarters in London and its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Beijing.
In 1977, women's tennis was the first professional sport opened to transsexuals. The New York Supreme Court ruled in favor of Renée Richards, a player who underwent male-to-female sex reassignment surgery. Eligibility of transsexual players is officially regulated under the current WTA official rulebook.
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