History of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals

Men's professional tennis has always featured a year-end championship ever since Jack Kramer, the first executive director of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), implemented the Grand Prix structure of a year-long series of tennis tournaments in 1969. Right from the first Masters in Tokyo in December 1970 it became a prestigious event, and was subsequently held in Paris, Barcelona, Boston, Melbourne, Stockholm, and Houston before the year-end championship had a 13-year association with Madison Square Garden in New York from 1977 to 1989.

The prestigious tournament has been contested in major cities around the world with a rich history dating back to the birth of The Masters in 1970 in Tokyo. The Masters, which was anchored at New York's famed Madison Square Garden from 1977 to 1989, evolved into the ATP Tour World Championships in 1990. German cities Frankfurt and Hannover shared the event through 1999 and in 2000 the event was rebranded Tennis Masters Cup.

Ilie Nastase won four titles from five consecutive finals appearances between 1971-75. John McEnroe won the first of his three titles in 1978 in his hometown of New York. Bjorn Borg won back-to-back titles in 1979-80 and Ivan Lendl reached nine consecutive finals from 1980-88 and shares the record for most circuit finale titles (5) with Pete Sampras.

From 1990-99 the tournament was known as the ATP Tour World Championships and was held in the German cities of Frankfurt and Hannover. Sampras' five titles during this period included an epic win in the 1996 final against home favourite Boris Becker. The American won 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(4), 6-7(11), 6-4 in one of the greatest matches of the decade.

The Tennis Masters Cup was created on December 9, 1999. On that day, the Grand Slam Committee, the ITF and the ATP Tour announced that the ATP Tour World Championship and the men's Grand Slam Cup (1990-1999) would be discontinued and a new jointly-owned, year-end men's tournament to be known as the Tennis Masters Cup was created.
Lleyton Hewitt won back-to-back circuit finales in 2001-02 © Getty images

In a dramatic beginning to the Tennis Masters Cup in 2000 in Lisbon, Gustavo Kuerten became the first South American to rank year-end No. 1 after stunning Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi in the semi-finals and final. Lleyton Hewitt (on left) won on home soil in Sydney in 2001 and in Shanghai the following year. Roger Federer then clinched back-to-back titles in Houston (2003-04) before the finale returned to Shanghai for a four-year period. David Nalbandian upset Federer 7-6 in the fifth set to take the 2005 title before Federer again won consecutive crowns in 2006-07. Shanghai hosted its fourth consecutive and final Tennis Masters Cup in 2008 with Novak Djokovic lifting the trophy, before the event was reborn in 2009 as the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals to be held in the heart of London at the O2 arena from 2009 to 2012.

http://www.barclaysatpworldtourfinals.c … itage.aspx

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Art of Tennis - Robin Soderling

"I've always dreamed about playing at the World Tour Finals. I had some really good memories from last year. Hopefully I can take that experience and do even better this time. There are only eight players and you play against the world's best so every match you play could be like a Grand Slam final. I will have to be ready from the first match"

Art of Tennis - Rafael Nadal

"Making the artwork was fun and something I've never done before. It's a great way to celebrate the World Tour Finals coming back to London. It was a little bit of a challenge to put the balls on the silhouette! Of course this is the least we can do for charity and for those who need it the most. It's very important that people in our position help those who really need help. I'd like to thank everyone for the support they give us."

Art of Tennis - Novak Djokovic

"It's a great achievement to qualify. It was incredible how many people came out to watch each and every match last year. I haven't experienced that before. Every match I played last year was a full stadium with 15,000 people and I really look forward to playing in front of that crowd again. Of course I will do my best to get even further than I did last year to try to pass the group stage," said the World No.2.

Na chwilę obecną pewny start w Londynie jeśli chodzi o deblistów, mają:
- Bob i Mike Bryanowie
- Daniel Nestor i Nenad Zimonjic
- Lukas Dlouhy i Leander Paes
- Łukasz Kubot i Oliver Marach
- Jurgen Melzer i Philipp Petzschner (jako zwycięzcy Wimbledonu)

O 3 wolne miejsca walczą:
- Mariusz Fyrstenberg i Marcin Matkowski
- Wesley Moodie i Dick Norman
- Mahesh Bhupathi i Max Mirnyi
- Rohan Bopanna i Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi

Jacuszyn napisał:

Bopanna i Qureshi odpadli,więc nie mają szans na Londyn.

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ATP Paryż: Matkowski i Fyrstenberg zakwalifikowani do Masters

Finały ATP World Tour, turniej Masters dla najlepszych zawodników sezonu, po raz drugi z rzędu odbędą się z trzema polskimi deblistami: do zakwalifikowanego już w środę Łukasza Kubota dołączyli Marcin Matkowski i Mariusz Fyrstenberg.

Awans Matkowskiego i Fyrstenberga dokonał się dzięki porażce Wesleya Moodiego i Dicka Normana, ich pogromców w II rundzie, w czwartkowym meczu ćwierćfinałowym w turnieju w Paryżu-Bercy przeciw braciom Bryanom.

Reprezentanci Polski są na piątym miejscu listy rankingowej debli, a występ w Masters (22-28 listopada) daje siódma pozycja. Wyprzedzić naszych zawodników mogą już tylko dwa duety (Bhupathi / Mirnyj oraz Čermák / Mertiňák), a zatem Matkowski i Fyrstenberg pojadą na swój czwarty Masters.

http://www.sportowefakty.pl/tenis/2010/ … o-masters/

Lista deblowa na tę chwilę:

1 Bryan/Bryan
2 Nestor/Zimonjic
3 Dlouhy/Paes
4 Kubot/Marach
5 Fyrstenberg/Matkowski
6 Bhupathi/Mirnyi
7
(WC) Melzer/Petzschner