Tournament structure and nations’ success in women’s professional tennis MACHAR REID 1 , MIGUEL CRESPO 2 , FRANCISCO ATIENZA 3 , & JAMES DIMMOCK 1 1 Department of Human Movement and Exercise Science, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia, 2 Tennis Development Department, International Tennis Federation, London, UK, and 3 University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain (Accepted 25 August 2006) Abstract The relationship between domestic professional tournament structure in women’s tennis and the subsequent professional ranking success of a nation’s female players is examined. The 2003 women’s professional tennis tournament calendar provided the distribution of events in 33 countries. Criteria used to classify nations’ success in women’s professional tennis were as follows: number of players with Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) points, number of players with Top 200 rankings, and the combined WTA ranking of a nation’s Top 5 female players. Pearson product – moment correlations were performed between the number of tournaments and the three criteria. Considerable variation was observed in the number of events organized between nations (USA, n ¼ 56; Thailand, n ¼ 3). All countries had internationally ranked female players, and 24 nations had players ranked in the Top 200. Results revealed relationships between a nation’s number of women’s professional events and both that nation’s number of professionally ranked players (r ¼ 0.60; P 5 0.01) and Top 200 players (r ¼ 0.60; P 5 0.01), as well as the combined ranking of their Top 5 players (r ¼ 70.52; P 5 0.01). While a similar association was found between the number of professional events and players ranked in the men’s game, there was no significant correlation between events held and the combined standing of nations’ best five ranked players. Governing bodies and national associations in tennis should consider the provision of professional, domestic competition as key to the development of female tennis players. Keywords: Professional, tennis, tournaments, female Introduction The importance of competition to tennis player development is well accepted (MacCurdy, 1999). Not until recently, however, was the link between a nation’s number of professional events and interna- tional tennis success experienced by that nation’s players investigated. In the men’s game, a positive association (r ¼ 0.74) was observed between a nation’s total number of professional men’s events and that nation’s number of Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranked players. However, there was no evidence to suggest that a high number of tournaments was a prerequisite for elite player development (Crespo, Reid, Miley, & Atienza, 2003). Research to quantify similar relationships in the women’s game could provide national associa- tions with further information to facilitate domestic player development. In women’s professional tennis, the tournament structure is hierarchical. The four Grand Slams – Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and US Open – represent the highest level, with five tiers of Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) events and Futures tournaments organized by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) forming the levels below (Table I). The WTA tour consists of approximately 60 regular season tournaments, plus one season-ending Masters for the year’s eight top-performing players, in over 30 countries (WTA, 2003). These tourna- ments are ‘‘tiered’’ to reflect the prize money and ranking points offered. They have a minimum prize money of US$110,000 and the higher a tourna- ment’s prize money and ranking points, the higher the cut-off ranking (i.e. the ranking a player requires to directly enter the tournament) (Table I). ITF Futures events represent lower entry-level opportunities for professional or aspiring profes- sional players. As outlined by Crespo et al. (2003), the ITF Futures ($US15,000 – 25,000) last for one week and ranking points can be earned by all Correspondence: M. Reid, Department of Human Movement and Exercise Science, University of Western Australia, Parkway Entrance 3, Crawley, WA 6008, Australia. E-mail: reidm01@tartarus.uwa.edu.au Journal of Sports Sciences, September 2007; 25(11): 1221 – 1228 ISSN 0264-0414 print/ISSN 1466-447X online Ó 2007 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/02640410600982691