Tennis Masters Cup

History - Important Facts - Winners - Schedule - Qualifiers 2008

The first Tennis Masters Cup was held in November 2000. Before this, there were two similar separate events held by the ITF and the ATP during the 1970s and 1980s. The ITF tournament that started in 1970 was called The Masters tournament and it was the original version of the year-end event in which the best male players of the tour competed. However, the qualification was not calculated by world ranking points. 

The Masters tournament was replaced by the ATP event called the ATP Tour World Championship in 1990, which started using the world ranking points calculated by giving the champion of the ATP the same amount of points that the ITF gave to a Grand Slam winner. At the same time, the ITF created another rival tournament called the Grand Slam Cup, which was disputed by the best 16 players with the greatest records in Grand Slam tournaments.

Nevertheless, in December 1999 the ITF and the ATP got into an agreement of terminating the two separate events and created a new one held by both organizations called the Tennis Masters Cup. This tournament brings in the top eight players of the world rankings. Yet, on the rules of this tournament the player ranked No. 8  does not have the guarantee of having the spot in the event, because if any of the top 20 players won a Grand Slam in the year, the highest ranked is automatically replacing the ranked No.8 if this one didn’t won a Grand Slam.

The Tennis Masters Cup is not a knock-out tournament, contrary to the majority of tennis tournaments. The eight players are separated into two groups of four, and play three round-robin matches against each of the other players in the group. After that, the top two players with the best records in each group qualify to the semifinals, the winner of each semifinal meet in the final to determine the title holder. The champion of the 2008 Tennis Masters Cup will earn prize money of US$3,800,000.

The 2008 is the fourth consecutive year in which the event is held in Shanghai, China, although, starting 2009 through 2012 the year-end tournament will be hosted by The O2 at London and it will also change its name to the ATP World Tour Finals.