It looks like the ITF, ATP, and WTA are finally working together to resolve transition issues between the junior/collegiate levels to the professional level. Matt Stachowiak breaks down the reconstruction.

Get ready for a major restructuring of professional tennis beginning in 2019! The ITF recently announced more details regarding the new transition tour designed to effectively link the ITF Junior Circuit with the senior professional game.

This tour will form a new tournament structure that has been agreed upon by the ITF, ATP, and WTA. These associations are looking to address current challenges at the entry level of professional tennis, and the transition tour will seek to alleviate some of those challenges.

The ITF is trying to make sure that prize money at professional tournaments allows more players to actually make a living. It’s about time! According to research done by the ITF, over 14,000 players compete each year in professional tournaments and only around 350 men and 250 women break even financially without consideration of coaching costs. This is an alarming statistic.

The transition tour will be set within a more condensed circuit structure in order to reduce costs for players and tournament organizers.

According to the ITF website, the new tournament structure is expected to reduce the number of professional players with ATP and WTA rankings from 3,000 players to approximately 750 men and 750 women. This is obviously quite a significant change, but one that ultimately makes sense.

The new transition tour events will essentially be replacing the existing $15,000 men’s and women’s futures tournaments in 2019. These events will still offer $15,000 in prize money, but will award ITF Entry points instead of ATP and WTA ranking points.

What about the players that end up in between the transition tour and the ATP/WTA tours? Well, it is inevitable that many players will end up competing on both tours. These players will possess both a professional ranking and an ITF Entry point standing. The new structure is designed to link the two systems, so players will be able to use an ITF Entry point standing to gain entry into professional events.

So, can highly ranked players compete in these transition tour tournaments? The answer is no.

The ITF, ATP, and WTA are going to implement a new set of rules to prevent highly ranked players from competing on the transition tour. This will maximize opportunities for up-and-coming players. It is expected that most players with either an ATP or WTA ranking would choose to enter professional tournaments under this new structure.

The new ranking systems of the ITF, ATP, and WTA will be put into place at the end of 2018. ATP or WTA players that earn ranking points at those $15,000 futures events this year will have them converted into ITF Entry points at the end of the year. The points will not suddenly disappear, which is only fair to the players that earned them. Shadow rankings will run throughout the season so that players can see what their professional ranking and ITF Entry point standing would be under the new system.

This is a lot of information to digest, and only time will tell if the new transition tour will actually become a success. It is refreshing though to see the ITF, ATP, and WTA all working together to make improvements to professional tennis. We know these players work their tails off every single day to improve, and hopefully make a living by playing the sport they love.

It’ll be interesting to follow some of the up-and-coming players next year to see how they progress from the transition tour, onto the ATP and WTA tours. What do you guys think? Let us know if you like the idea of the transition tour or if you think it’ll be a bust. Either way, we will find out very soon.