Chapter 217 Schedule
Professional tennis, the annual schedule is carefully designed and coordinated, centered around the four Grand Slams, throughout the entire year.
Summer belongs to North America and the U.S. Open.
In 2004, the United States Tennis Association officially launched the "U.S. Open Series". The purpose behind it is not difficult to understand: on the one hand, it is indeed to pave the way for professional players to adjust their status and eventually show their top status in the U.S. Open and present wonderful competitions.
On the other hand, it is for ratings and sponsorship fees, because the United States Tennis Association has also set up a separate "US Open Series Points" to encourage players to participate.
"US Open Series Points" is a limited point system that is calculated and accumulated based on the results of different levels of tournaments. The goal is to attract top players to participate in those small tournaments, and the ratings, attendance, sponsorship fees, etc. will all rise accordingly. The points will then accumulate until the end of the US Open.
In the end, the top three players in the series points and who participate in at least two US Open series will be able to win additional bonuses provided by the United States Tennis Association on top of their US Open prize money; and, as long as they are in the top three in the series points, they can still win additional bonuses even if they are eliminated in the first round of the US Open.
The top three finishers in the series will receive additional bonuses of $1 million, $500,000, and $250,000 respectively.
It is also because of this that the appeal of the "US Open Series" has skyrocketed, and every North American season seems to be extremely lively, which is a scene that cannot be seen at other times.
Of course, the top players will participate selectively and build their own schedules around the U.S. Open, so they may not necessarily participate in all of them.
As of this year, only four people have achieved the feat of winning both the US Open and the US Open and pocketing a million dollars in prize money five times: Federer in 2007, Kim Clijsters in 2005 and 2010, Serena Williams and Nadal in 2013.
Apart from the top players, thanks to the promotion and organization of the United States Tennis Association, there are countless professional players willing to come to North America to participate in the tour in the summer. Compared with the European and Asian seasons, which have to travel to different cities in multiple countries, the North American season is clearly more unified in organization.
It can be said that the North American season is the most dazzling time of the year.
As mentioned before, the United States Tennis Association has always attached great importance to the training of the next generation of young players. They have a series of close collaborations with the NCAA to help college tennis players explore their professional careers and look forward to the emergence of more outstanding players.
Naturally, there is no reason for them to miss the opportunity of the US Open series.
According to the cooperation agreement, the two singles champions and two doubles champions of the NCAA National Championships will all be able to win wild cards for the U.S. Open.
But that’s not all.
The two singles runners-up and two doubles runners-up of the NCAA National Championship will be able to choose one of the two Masters tournaments in the US Open series and get a wild card.
In addition, the top four players will also have the opportunity to showcase themselves and win a wild card for the US Open Series Gold Tournament.
To put it simply, the United States Tennis Association provides wild cards, and then the level of the tournament corresponding to the wild cards gradually decreases based on the results of the U.S. Championships.
Some people may be curious, what's so great about a wild card for the Gold Tournament? Isn't the 500 Tournament an event that everyone can participate in? In fact, it's not.
There is a threshold for entering professional tennis. Not just anyone with a racket can play the game. There is a threshold for signing up to participate.
Let’s take the Grand Slam tournaments as an example.
The singles tournaments at the Grand Slams have 128 draws. For reference, the Masters, Gold Tournaments and Tour tournaments all have 64 draws.
Qualifying for the singles tournament is divided into three parts.
The first part is to automatically qualify for the main competition based on the world ranking, that is, the top 104 players.
If one of them cannot participate in the competition due to injury or other reasons, he or she will automatically replace him or her according to the ranking order, with the player ranked 105th as the substitute, and so on.
The second part is the sixteen qualifying places.
The qualifying round will be held one week before the Grand Slam. After three rounds of competition, the final sixteen winners will be decided and qualified to participate in the main competition.
The third part is the wild cards, which total eight.
It is often awarded by the tournament organizer according to its own rules and regulations, and is usually given to domestic players, rookies, or famous players who cannot automatically qualify for the main draw due to loss of points due to injuries. The tennis associations of the countries where the four Grand Slam tournaments are held have also signed reciprocal agreements to grant each other several places.
In addition, Grand Slam tournaments will also hold special wildcard tournaments. For example, the Australian Open will hold a separate wildcard tournament in China, and the final champion will win a wildcard and enter the main tournament. In this way, the influence of the Australian Open in the Chinese market will be expanded.
It should be noted that not everyone can participate in the qualifying round.
There are a total of 128 draws in the Grand Slam qualifying round, and three rounds of competition will be held to determine the 16 winners who will enter the main competition.
Here, the qualifying competition also relies on ranking, and the players start from 105th place and move down, taking into account the impact of injuries and other reasons for absence. In other words, it is often necessary to rank in the top 300 to be able to participate in the Grand Slam qualifying competition.
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Of course, there is also a wild card system in the qualifying round, which is often awarded to young players or rookies.
The Grand Slam is the highest level tournament in professional tennis. The thresholds for qualifying, wild cards, etc. are obvious, and the Masters and Gold Tournaments are no less stringent.
The qualifying rounds for the Masters and Gold Tournaments are both two rounds, and the players are also selected based on their rankings. However, due to the circumstances of the Masters and Gold Tournaments, some high-ranking players may miss the competition even if they are not injured, so the competition for the qualifiers and wild cards is relatively less intense.
But despite this, the qualifying rounds for the Masters and Gold Tournaments often require players ranked in the top 500 in the world.
NCAA players do not have any world rankings for the time being, let alone the top 500, or even the top 800. This means that they cannot even participate in the qualifying rounds of the Gold Tournament. In addition, they do not have many opportunities to participate in the tour with wild cards, and they are often active in the Challenge Tournament.
They all accumulated points through challenge tournaments, improved their world rankings, and then gained qualification step by step.
From this we can see that even a wild card for the Gold Tournament is very valuable, because they can directly participate in the main tournament without participating in the qualifying round.
This shows that the United States Tennis Association has indeed put a lot of thought into encouraging its young players.
So, how should Gao Wen arrange his competition plan this summer?
First update.
(End of this chapter)