What is the ITF World Tennis Tour?
What is the ITF World Tennis Tour?
The ITF World Tennis Tour provides entry-level and mid-level international tennis tournaments, creating a pathway between the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors and the elite levels of professional tennis. Its purpose is to provide players from all over the world with the opportunity to join and work their way up the player pathway, and realise their tennis dreams.
The Tour was previously known as the ITF Pro Circuit and consisted of tournaments called Satellites (until 2007) and Futures (until 2019), until its re-brand in 2019. Tournaments are now known by the tour code and prize money level. For example: M15 Antalya, or W60 Canberra.
What tournaments does the ITF World Tennis Tour offer?
The Men’s and Women’s World Tennis Tours offer over 1000 tournaments worldwide. The Men’s Tour incorporates two prize money levels of tournaments – $15,000 (M15) and $25,000 (M25); while the Women’s Tour has five prize money levels – $15,000 (W15), $25,000 (W25), $60,000 (W60), $80,000 (W80) and $100,000 (W100). We are looking at adding more women's events this year in line with our Advantage All programme to ensure women have even more opportunities to step up.
How does the ITF World Tennis Tour encourage players to develop and progress in the sport?
The ITF World Tennis Tour is designed to target prize money effectively to help reduce costs for players and ultimately enable more players to make a living. Tournaments at M15 and W15 level also include reserved main draw places for Top 100-ranked ITF Juniors, providing a smooth pathway for the best new talent to break through into elite professional tennis.
How many of the world's very best tennis players have trodden this path?
Plenty! Players competing at ITF World Tennis Tour events could be just a few short years away from making their mark at the very top of the game. Iga Swiatek, who this week becomes the first Polish player to rank at world No. 1, won seven titles across the W15, W25 and W60 levels on the ITF World Tennis Tour between 2016 and 2018, before making her big breakthrough at 2020 Roland Garros. Britain's Emma Raducanu, whose rise to the top of the sport has been even more dramatic, won her first three professional titles at ITF W15 and W25 events in Israel, Turkey and India, and her fourth on the grandest stage of all at the US Open.
On the men's side, Stefanos Tsitsipas won his first five titles at ITF events in 2015 and 2016 before stepping up to the ATP Challenger and then ATP Tour, while world No. 12 Cameron Norrie won three ITF titles during the same period before progressing on to ATP Challengers.
We could go on and on... but in short, the majority of top tennis players have both spent time, and succeeded, on the ITF World Tennis Tour before making their mark at a higher level.
Do ITF tournaments count towards a player’s ATP or WTA ranking?
Absolutely. The results of ITF tournaments are incorporated into the ATP and WTA Rankings, which enables male professionals to progress on to the ATP Challenger Tour and ATP Tour and for female professionals to advance to the WTA Tour, and ultimately the Grand Slams.
Can you provide a handy graphic that shows a player's journey from the grassroots to the top of the sport?
Why yes we can! This should do the trick...
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International Player Pathway
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So the junior tour feeds the ITF World Tennis Tour. How does the junior tour work?
The ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors gives players aged 18 and under the opportunity to travel the world and develop their talent, before progressing on to the professional Tour. With over 650 tournaments in 140 countries, the Tour sees players compete across six levels of tournament – from JA (which includes the junior Grand Slams) through to J1, J2, J3, J4 and J5, the lowest grade.
How does the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors prepare young players for life as a professional tennis player?
The ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors provides a launch pad for the best players to go on and achieve success in the professional game. As well as providing the next step from national and regional tournaments across the ITF's 210 member nations, ITF Juniors also incorporates player services and safeguarding programmes, such as medical and officiating standards, integrity and anti-doping measures, player and coach education programmes and Covid-19 protocols as featured on the Men's and Women's ITF World Tennis Tour.
How can I see what’s coming up on the ITF World Tennis Tour calendar?
You can see all the latest tournaments on the ITF World Tennis Tours at the links below.
Where can I find the latest results?
You can follow the latest action at it happens at our live scores page, featuring live streams when available from the Men’s and Women’s ITF World Tennis Tours.
You can also discover all the results from completed ITF World Tennis Tour tournaments in an easily-digestable format here: