WTA Tour

The WTA Tour (currently known as the Hologic WTA Tour) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour.

WTA Tour tournaments

Structure (2024-present)

In 2024, the WTA made all WTA 1000 events mandatory. The WTA Elite Trophy did not return:

• Grand Slam tournaments (4)
• Year-ending WTA Finals (1)
• WTA 1000 tournaments: Ten events with prize money ranging from US$2 million to US$10 million.
• WTA 500 tournaments: 17 events with prize money from US$700,000 to US$900,000.
• WTA 250 tournaments: 23 events, with prize money at US$250,000.

Structure (2021–2023)

The WTA Tour underwent a slight change in the classification of tournaments in 2021, which were reorganized on with similar nomenclature to that used on ATP Tour:

• Grand Slam tournaments (4)
• Year-ending WTA Finals (1)
• Penultimate event WTA Elite Trophy (1)
• WTA 1000 tournaments (9):
  • Mandatory: Five combined tournaments with male professional players with prize money ranging from US$6.5 million to US$8.3 million. These tournaments are held in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome and Beijing. The Beijing tournament was not held in 2021 and 2022 due to the Covid-19 Pandemic and returned in 2023.
  • Non-mandatory: Four events in Doha/Dubai, Montreal/Toronto, Cincinnati, and Wuhan with prize money ranging from US$2.3 million to US$2.7 million. From 2020 to 2023, the tournament in Wuhan was suspended due to Covid–19 Pandemic. In 2022 and 2023, a new WTA 1000 tournament was held in Guadalajara as a replacement for Wuhan. From 2021-2023, Doha and Dubai switched off, with one being a WTA 1000 event and the other being a WTA 500 event.
• WTA 500 tournaments: 12 events with prize money from US$700,000 to US$900,000.
• WTA 250 tournaments: 30 events, with prize money at US$250,000.

Structure (2009–2020)

The WTA Tour comprised from 2009 to the 2021 reorganization:

• Grand Slam tournaments (4)
• Year-ending WTA Tour Championships (1)
• Penultimate event WTA Elite Trophy (From 2015 onwards) (1)
• Premier tournaments (21):
  • Premier Mandatory: Four combined tournaments with male professional players, with US$6.5 million in equal prize money for men and women (increased from $4.5 million in 2013). These tournaments are held in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, and Beijing.
  • Premier Five: Five $2.8 million events in Doha/Dubai, Rome, Montreal/Toronto, Cincinnati, and Wuhan.
  • Premier: 12 events with prize money from US$799,000 to US$2.5 million.
• International tournaments: There are 32 tournaments, with prize money for all except four events at US$250,000. The exceptions are the Shenzhen Open, Moscow River Cup, Hong Kong Tennis Open, the Tianjin Open, and the year-ending WTA Tournament of Champions, each with prize money of US$750,000.

WTA rankings

WTA publishes weekly rankings of professional players.

Current rankings

WTA rankings (singles) as of 20 May 2024[update][1][2] No. Player Points Move 1  Iga Świątek (POL) 11,695 2 Aryna Sabalenka 8,138 3  Coco Gauff (USA) 7,638 4  Elena Rybakina (KAZ) 5,673 5  Jessica Pegula (USA) 4,655 6  Markéta Vondroušová (CZE) 4,045 7  Maria Sakkari (GRE) 3,980 1 8  Zheng Qinwen (CHN) 3,945 1 9  Ons Jabeur (TUN) 3,748 10  Jeļena Ostapenko (LAT) 3,318 11 Daria Kasatkina 3,293 12  Danielle Collins (USA) 3,148 3 13  Jasmine Paolini (ITA) 2,923 1 14  Beatriz Haddad Maia (BRA) 2,885 1 15  Karolína Muchová (CZE) 2,810 1 16  Madison Keys (USA) 2,783 17  Elina Svitolina (UKR) 2,510 2 18 Ekaterina Alexandrova 2,450 19 Liudmila Samsonova 2,440 2 20  Marta Kostyuk (UKR) 2,180

WTA rankings (doubles) as of 20 May 2024[update][3][4] No. Player Points Move 1  Hsieh Su-wei (TPE) 8,945 2  Elise Mertens (BEL) 7,830 3  Erin Routliffe (NZL) 6,715 3 4  Storm Hunter (AUS) 6,705 1 5  Gabriela Dabrowski (CAN) 6,385 1 6  Laura Siegemund (GER) 6,210 1 7  Nicole Melichar-Martinez (USA) 5,275  Ellen Perez (AUS) 5,275 9  Vera Zvonareva 4,958 10  Luisa Stefani (BRA) 4,560 11  Kateřina Siniaková (CZE) 4,518 1 12  Taylor Townsend (USA) 4,238 2 13  Demi Schuurs (NED) 4,070 2 14  Desirae Krawczyk (USA) 4,045 15  Lyudmyla Kichenok (UKR) 3,805 1 16  Wang Xinyu (CHN) 3,720 4 17  Sara Sorribes Tormo (ESP) 3,662 18  Jeļena Ostapenko (LAT) 3,513 19  Marie Bouzková (CZE) 3,500 4 20  Coco Gauff (USA) 3,300 1

Ranking method

The WTA rankings are based on a rolling 52-week, cumulative system. A player's ranking is determined by her results at a maximum of 18 tournaments for singles and 12 for doubles. Points are awarded based on how far a player advances in a tournament. The basis for calculating a player's ranking are those tournaments that yield the highest ranking points during the rolling 52-week period. The period must include:^[5]

• the four Grand Slams
• six WTA 1000 Mandatory combined/virtually combined tournaments
• one WTA 1000 Mandatory (WTA-only) tournament
• the best of seven results from all WTA 1000 Mandatory, WTA 500, WTA 250, and WTA 125 Tournaments and ITF W15+ events
• the WTA Finals as a bonus tournament if the player attended

All WTA players also have a Universal Tennis Rating, based on head-to-head results.

The points distribution for tournaments in 2024 is shown below:

S = singles players, D = doubles teams, Q = qualification players.
* Assumes undefeated round robin match record.

Note that if a player or team receives one or more byes and then loses their first match of the tournament, they will only receive points for the first round of that tournament. For example, if a player receives a bye in R64 and then loses her match in R32, she will only receive points for R64 despite having advanced (via bye) to R32. Similarly, if a player or team withdraws from their first match after receiving a bye, they will not be awarded any points for that tournament.^[6]

In ITF tournaments, the main draw is normally 32 for singles and 16 for doubles. Losers in the first round of doubles will receive points equal to that shown in the R32 column above. For subsequent rounds (quarter-finals onwards) the points are the same as for singles.

See also

• WTA 125K series
• ITF Women's Circuit
• ATP Tour Association of Tennis Professionals Tour

References