WTA Premier Tournaments

WTA Premier Tournaments

Premier Tournaments is a category of tennis tournaments in the Women's Tennis Association tour, implemented since the reorganization of the schedule in 2009.

As of 2012, Premier events include:

• Four "Premier Mandatory" events in Indian Wells, Key Biscayne, Madrid, and Beijing with prize money of $4.5 million.
• Five "Premier 5" events in Dubai/Doha, Rome, Cincinnati, Toronto/Montreal, and Tokyo with prize money of $2 million.
• Twelve "Premier" events with prize money of $600,000 to $1,000,000.
• Season-ending WTA Tour Championships, with a prize money of $4.45 million

The ranking points awarded to the winners of these tournaments are: Premier Mandatory 1000; Premier 5 900; Premier 470; WTA Tour Championships, up to 1,500 depending on number of round-robin matches won. This compares to 2,000 points for winning a Grand Slam and 280 for winning an International tournament. This system differs from that used for the men's ATP rankings, but only slightly. The men have nine Masters events with 1,000 points for the winner (akin to WTA Premier Mandatory and Premier 5 tournaments), and the next two tiers of ATP tournaments offer 500 and 250 points for winning respectively.