WTA TOUR 2009

WTA Tournament categories

The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) divides the main women's tournaments into several categories. Premier Tournaments is a new category for tennis tournaments on the 2009 WTA Tour. The Premier Tournaments are replacing Tier I and Tier II events except that the number of those tournaments is being reduced to 20 (from 26 Tier I/II events). Tier III and IV are replaced with the International Tournaments category. The Women Tennis Players have to compete in the following tournaments;

1. Grand Slam tournaments (4), Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, US Open
2. Year-ending championships (Sony Ericsson Championships), with prize money to be determined.
3. Premier tournaments:
   1. Premier Mandatory: Four combined tournaments with male professional players, with U.S.$ 4.5 million in equal prize money for men and women. These tournaments are being held in Indian Wells, Key Biscayne, Madrid, and Beijing.
   2. Premier Five: Five $2 million events in Dubai, Rome, Cincinnati, Toronto / Montreal, and Tokyo
   3. Premier: Ten events with prize money from U.S.$ 600,000 to U.S.$ 1 million.
4. International tournaments: There are 31 WTA tournaments, with a prize money for every event at U.S.$ 220,000, except for the year-ending Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali, which has prize money of U.S.$ 600,000.

Ranking points are also available at certain International Tennis Federation events as well as the Olympics.

Ranking

Each week, the Women's Tennis Association releases a ranking of each player's performance in singles and doubles on the women's professional tennis tour. A player's ranking points are based on the highest round she reached in each tournament ("round points"). The following table gives the distribution of "round points" for 2009.