Association of Tennis Professionals Official Tennis Rules

The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Official Tennis rules cover many aspects of professional tennis including but not limited to when and where matches are played, how many sets are played, and when finals should be played. The official tennis rules govern player commitments to play a specified number of tournaments in each tournament category to establish rankings and form the basis for how tournament match draws are set.

  1. Categories of Tournaments

    • According to the Association of Tennis Professionals Official Tennis rules, there are five categories of men's tournaments: ATP World Tour tournaments, Grand Slams, Davis Cup, ATP Challenger Tour tournaments and Futures tournaments. All tournaments must have a singles qualification competition (unless there are adequate places available in the main draw) with single elimination.

    Qualifying and Tournament Week

    • Each ATP World Tour and ATP Challenger tournament is assigned a specific tournament week for scheduling the main draws for singles and doubles beginning Monday and concluding the following Sunday. Number of sets for all matches including finals for singles is best-of-three (tie-break) sets and two tie-break sets, with a deciding set tie-break (10 point) at one set all. Singles qualifying is held the Saturday and Sunday prior to the first Monday of the main draw.

    Location Surface and Schedule

    • The location of the qualifying site must provide the same facilities as the main draw site if qualifying is held at a different location. The playing surface must be the same in qualifying and the main draw unless uncontrollable circumstances dictate a different surface be used. This can only be done under the approval of the tournament supervisor. Each tournament must provide to the ATP (at least 180 days prior to the tournament) a typed daily schedule of proposed daily starting times and number of courts to be used for the tournament.

    Finals

    • According to the Association of Tennis Professionals Official Tennis rules, when singles and doubles finals are played the same day, doubles finals should be played first unless otherwise approved by the ATP with awards ceremonies for singles to follow the singles final match. Doubles must be scheduled two hours prior to the published singles final unless otherwise approved by the ATP.

    Additional Rules

    • Additional official rules set forth by the Association of Tennis Professionals cover player eligibility based on ATP tournament participation, mandatory player meetings subject to fines for player absence, ATP player university attendance requirements for division one and two collegiate players ranked in the top 200 and 100, participation in ATP sponsored activities, restrictions on participating in special events during tournament season and within proximity of ATP scheduled events and seating requirements for the venue hosting the ATP event.