Grand Prix Tennis Circuit - Background

Background

Prior to the Open Era popular professional tennis players were contracted to a Professional Promoter. Players such as Suzanne Lenglen and Vincent Richards were contracted to these promoters while amateur players followed their national (and international) federation. Later professional promoters, such as Bill Tilden and Jack Kramer, often convinced leading amateurs such as Pancho Gonzales and Rod Laver to join their tours with promises of good prize money, but these successes led to financial difficulties when players were paid too much and falling attendances resulted in reduced takings. In the late-1950s the professional tour began to fall apart. It only survived when the U.S. Pro Tennis Championships, having been unable to give prize money to its winner in 1962, received prize money from the First National Bank of Boston for the following year's tournament. At the same time the concept of "shamateurism" – amateur promoters paying players under the table to ensure they remained amateurs – had become apparent to Hernan David, the chairman of The Championships, Wimbledon at that time.

In 1967, David announced that a professional tournament would be held at Wimbledon after the Championships that year. The tournament was televised by the BBC and succeeded in gaining public support for professional tennis. In late 1967, the best of the remaining amateur players turned professional, paving the way for the first open tournament. Some professionals were independent at this time, such as Lew Hoad, Luis Ayala and Owen Davidson, but most of the best players came under contract to one of two professional tours:

• The National Tennis League (NTL), run by George McCall
  • Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Ken Rosewall, Andrés Gimeno, Pancho Gonzales and Fred Stolle

• World Championship Tennis (WCT), run by Dave Dixon and Lamar Hunt
  • Handsome Eight: John Newcombe, Tony Roche, Niki Pilić, Roger Taylor, Pierre Barthès, Butch Buchholz, Cliff Drysdale and Dennis Ralston

When the Open Era began in 1968, tournaments often found themselves deprived of either NTL or WCT players. The first Open tournament, the British Hard Court Championships at Bournemouth, was played without WCT players, as was that year's French Open. In 1970, NTL players did not play the Australian Open because their organization did not receive a guarantee.