History
Started in 1972 by Jack Kramer, Donald Dell, and Cliff Drysdale, it was first managed by Jack Kramer, as Executive Director, and Cliff Drysdale, as President. Jack Kramer created the professional players' rankings system, which started the following year and continues to this day. From 1974 to 1989, the men's circuit was administered by a sub-committee called the Men's Tennis Council. It was made up of representatives of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the ATP, and tournament directors from around the world.
The ATP requested and got the Men's International Pro Tennis Council (MIPTC) to introduce a drug testing rule, making tennis the first professional sport to institute a drug-testing program.
But the tour was still run by the tournament directors. The lack of player representation culminated in a player mutiny in 1988 changing the entire structure of the tour. CEO Hamilton Jordan is credited with the now infamous "Parking Lot Press Conference" resulting in their own ATP Tour. This re-organisation also ended a lawsuit with Volvo and Donald Dell.
By 1991, the men had their first television package to broadcast 19 tournaments to the world. Coming on-line with their first website in 1995, was quickly followed by a multi-year agreement with Mercedes-Benz.
Lawsuits in 2008, around virtually the same issues, resulted in a restructured tour.
Read more about this topic: Association Of Tennis Professionals
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“Both place and time were changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Books of natural history aim commonly to be hasty schedules, or inventories of God’s property, by some clerk. They do not in the least teach the divine view of nature, but the popular view, or rather the popular method of studying nature, and make haste to conduct the persevering pupil only into that dilemma where the professors always dwell.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)