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
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The myth of independence from the mother is abandoned in mid- life as women learn new routes around the mother—both the mother without and the mother within. A mid-life daughter may reengage with a mother or put new controls on care and set limits to love. But whatever she does, her child’s history is never finished.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)
“Let it suffice that in the light of these two facts, namely, that the mind is One, and that nature is its correlative, history is to be read and written.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)