WTA Tour
The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour.
Season format
2024–present
In 2024, the WTA made all WTA 1000 events mandatory. The WTA Elite Trophy did not return:- Grand Slam tournaments
- Year-ending WTA Finals
- WTA 1000 tournaments: Ten events with prize money ranging from US$2 million to US$10 million.
- WTA 500 tournaments: 17 events with prize money from US$700,000 to US$900,000.
- WTA 250 tournaments: 22 events, with prize money around US$250,000.
2021–2023
The WTA Tour underwent a slight change in the classification of tournaments in 2021, which were reorganized on with similar nomenclature to that used on ATP Tour:- Grand Slam tournaments
- Year-ending WTA Finals
- Penultimate event WTA Elite Trophy
- WTA 1000 tournaments :
- * Mandatory: Five combined tournaments with male professional players with prize money ranging from US$6.5 million to US$8.3 million. These tournaments are held in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome and Beijing. The Beijing tournament was not held in 2021 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and returned in 2023.
- * Non-mandatory: Four events in Doha/Dubai, Montreal/Toronto, Cincinnati, and Wuhan with prize money ranging from US$2.3 million to US$2.7 million. From 2020 to 2023, the tournament in Wuhan was suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022 and 2023, a new WTA 1000 tournament was held in Guadalajara as a replacement for Wuhan. From 2021 to 2023, Doha and Dubai switched off, with one being a WTA 1000 event and the other being a WTA 500 event.
- WTA 500 tournaments: 12 events with prize money from US$700,000 to US$900,000.
- WTA 250 tournaments: 30 events, with prize money at US$250,000.
2009–2020
The WTA Tour comprised from 2009 to the 2021 reorganization:- Grand Slam tournaments
- Year-ending WTA Tour Championships
- Penultimate event WTA Elite Trophy
- Premier tournaments :
- * Premier Mandatory: Four combined tournaments with male professional players, with US$6.5 million in equal prize money for men and women. These tournaments are held in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, and Beijing.
- * Premier Five: Five $2.8 million events in Doha/Dubai, Rome, Montreal/Toronto, Cincinnati, and Wuhan.
- * Premier: 12 events with prize money from US$799,000 to US$2.5 million.
- International tournaments: There were 32 tournaments, with prize money for all except four events at US$250,000. The exceptions are the Shenzhen Open, Moscow River Cup, Hong Kong Tennis Open, the Tianjin Open, and the year-ending WTA Tournament of Champions, each with prize money of US$750,000.
WTA rankings
WTA publishes weekly rankings of professional players.Ranking method
The WTA rankings are based on a rolling 52-week, cumulative system. A player's ranking is determined by her results at a maximum of 18 tournaments for singles and 12 for doubles. Points are awarded based on how far a player advances in a tournament. The basis for calculating a player's ranking are those tournaments that yield the highest ranking points during the rolling 52-week period. The period must include:- the four Grand Slams
- six WTA 1000 Mandatory combined/virtually combined tournaments
- one WTA 1000 Mandatory tournament
- the best of seven results from all WTA 1000 Mandatory, WTA 500, WTA 250, and WTA 125 Tournaments and ITF W15+ events
- the WTA Finals as a bonus tournament if the player attended
The points distribution for tournaments in 2024 is shown below: