If you haven’t received your “Idiot’s Guide” to the 2009 WTA Roadmap calendar yet, consider this to be your official copy.
Despite the 2009 Roadmap bringing renewed vision and excitement to the women’s game, it’s not exactly easy to follow.
This simplified guide will introduce you to the changes in the tour schedule, define the differences between “Premiere” and “International” tournaments, and explain how ranking points are distributed. Most of all, it won’t leave you scratching your head when the season ends in October.
CALENDAR BASICS
The 2009 Tour calendar now features 54 tournaments across 31 countries (including all four Grand Slams) compared to last year’s 60 tournaments in 34 countries. The geographic division of tournaments includes 25 tournaments in Europe, 15 in the Americas and 14 in the Asia-Pacific region.
SHEDDING A FEW TIERS
Forget everything you know about “tiered” events–the 2009 WTA Roadmap has taken a different approach. Instead of using a four-tier system, the 2009 tournaments are divided into two categories – “Premier” and “International”. The differences between Premier and International events are based on prize money, ranking points, and player fields.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Premier vs. International
Premier tournaments are the marquee events of the WTA tour – designed for top-level players, and offer the largest paychecks. Formerly Tier 1/II events, there are 20 Premier tournaments in all.
Three types of Premier events:
1) Premier Mandatory – Required/combined tournaments for all players who qualify by ranking with prize money equal to the total men’s prize money for the same event ($4.5 million–US currency).
4 required tournaments:
- Indian Wells – March 11-22
- Sony Ericsson Open – March 25-April 4
- Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open – May 9-17
- China Open – October 3-11
2) Premier 5 – Tournaments having minimum prize money of $2,000,000 (US currency)
- 5 tournaments
3) Premier $700 – Tournaments having minimum prize money of $600,000 or $700,000 (US currency)
-9 tournaments
International: – International tournaments are designed for the other 950 players on the WTA tour, with minimum prize money of $220,000 (US currency). Formerly Tier III/IV events, there are 29 International tournaments in all.
IT’S ALL IN THE NUMBERS
New Ranking Point Distribution for Tournament Winners
Grand Slam – 2,000 points
Premier Mandatory – 1,000 points
Premier 5 – 800 points
Premier $700 – 470 points
International – 280 points
PLAYER PERKS
- More rest, more money, and more advice? Who wouldn’t want that? Here are just some of the perks that players will enjoy in 2009:
- Total tournament commitment dropped from 13 to 10
- 20% increase in prize money – just over $85 million overall
- Less abrupt surface changes between tournaments
- More in-season breaks for players
- A slightly longer off-season (8-10 weeks, with the season ending in late October)
- On-court coaching – now a permanent addition to the WTA tour. Microphones will be used to capture conversations between players and coaches during matches, for the benefit of live television broadcasts. Time will tell if this will become a source of interference or a source of entertainment.
BOYS AND GIRLS TOGETHER
They may not be sharing locker rooms, but the WTA/ATP players will be seeing a lot more of each other in 2009. There’s bound to be some drama there.
Combined Events for 2009 (17 total):
Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Beijing, Sydney, Moscow, Eastbourne, New Haven, Brisbane, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Estoril, Memphis, Acapulco, and all four Grand Slams.
Back-to-Back Combined Events for 2009 (8 total):
Dubai, Tokyo, Rome, Cincinnati, Canada, Auckland, Bastad, and Warsaw
TWO WINNERS ARE BETTER THAN ONE
For 2009, the WTA has incorporated two season-ending championships, one for Premier and one for International tournaments.
Premier Championships:
Sony Ericsson Championships – Doha, Qatar
-Held at the end of the season (Oct. 27-Nov. 1)
-Minimum of $4,450,000 in prize money (US currency).
International Championships:
The Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions – Bali, Indonesia
-Held AFTER the end of the season (Nov. 4-9)
-Round-robin format
-Players who have qualified for the year-end Sony Ericsson Championships singles event will not be eligible to play this tournament.
-Minimum of $600,000 in prize money (US currency)
OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW
Tournaments Removed from the 2009 calendar: The European autumn indoor season in Germany and Switzerland.
New tournaments for 2009: Madrid, Brisbane, Monterrey, Ponte Vedra Beach, Bastad, Warsaw, and Osaka.
Download the 2009 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour calendar.
(To save, right click on link and then select the “Save Target As” option.)
Paula Vergara is an experienced tennis journalist, who has worked as a regular contributor to On the Baseline Tennis News, USTA New England Magazine, and New England Sports Magazine. To view her work, visit her blog at www.paula-vergara.blogspot.com.
A couple of things stood out to me at first glance.
- The new ranking points. Wow, that will certainly make winning a Grand Slam more important when it comes to the rankings. No longer will players be able to rack up ranking points as quickly without winning substantial tournaments.
- New mandatory events. This will make things more interesting when Indian Wells rolls around. I am in favor of mandatory tournaments, but I’m curious to know what will happen when players pull-out or refuse to compete.
- No more Tiers. This one change might make life easier for fans trying to explain the tournament structure. Premier and International is about as simple as it can get.
Paula, excellent article. Thank you for all your work and I for one, am looking forward to seeing the Roadmap in action.
[...] Vergara simplified the 2009 WTA Roadmap calendar in her guest post for On the Baseline, and she did an excellent job. It will be useful to remind yourselves once [...]
Great job, Paula! I’ve just linked to this post and your blog.
Thanks – this was a fun piece to write.
thanks, just a small mistake at the end Luxembourg and Linz are still in the calendar : October
Angelica,
What I think Paula meant was that the traditional autumn season has been removed from the calendar.
The FORTIS Championships Luxembourg is no longer on the calendar, and has been renamed the BGL-BNP Paribas Open Luxembourg. As for Linz, it was demoted for 2009. In 2008 it was a Tier II tournament with $600,000 prize money, but this season it will only offer a $220,000 purse as an International event. The Zurich Open has been removed from the calendar and Germany’s Porsche Tennis Grand Prix will take place in April.
Paula, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
For the Top 10 players the 4 Premier Mandatories, 4 from the 5 Premier 5s and 2 from the 9 Premier $700s are mandatory? Is that right?
Correct me if I am wrong. I see 25 events that the men and womens will be competeing against or Men will play each other, so will the women.
Shed some light on this for. Will looking for them on TV if it is carried by my provider.
Will make a copy of this for my own use. Thanks
WMM
Tennis Observer – The only required tournaments are those in the “Premier Mandatory” category, for those who qualify by ranking. I’m assuming that the year-end championships is also mandatory for those who qualify. The Indian Wells tournament will be interesting for the Williams sisters, as they have boycotted that tournament for many years.
Willie – there are 17 combined events and 8 back-to-back, combined events, so yes, 25 in all.
Is there something specific that you would like to know?
Thanks for the answer. Yes, I would like to know if the Men and Women would be competing aganist each other or would they be playing mixed doubles. Again Thankis
WMM
There will most likely be mixed doubles in the combined events.
The word “combined” makes it sound a bit confusing. That really just means that both men and women are be competing in the same tournament, but have their own, separate draw. The only time that the men and women would be competing against each other is in mixed doubles, and I’m sure that the four mandatory tournaments will have a mixed doubles component. To be sure, you can take a look at the tournament web sites to see if they’ve added that type of competition.
This raises an interesting question: which tournaments have mixed doubles? Is it all combined events? I will look into that. Too bad the mixed doubles doesn’t get more TV-time.