ATP Tennis

So here's all you need to know about ATP tennis. The men's side of pro tennis is governed by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). ATP tennis is especially exciting right now with such great players and characters as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Before you can play on the tour, you must go through the ranks of the ITF Futures and Challenger circuits.

The ATP has a long history of controversy and conflict with other governing bodies, and you csn read all about the history on the official ATP History Site. Recently, the Association acquired a new president, Etienne de Villiers. He was previously with the Disney Corporation, and he helped them to greatly strengthen their infrastructure and earnings in his ten year period there. He has now come to the industry with the intentions of a business man, and his business is to improve the image and viewership of the men's game.

De Villiers is quite actively achieving this new image with things like experimentation with a round robin format, and now with the "Feel It" camppaign, which gets artists involved in coupling each major player with an artistic image.

There is also a big surge in the doubles game, with the introduction of the Doubles Revolution. It is a shame that they had to change the scoring system in order to get better TV ratings and to encourage singles players to play doubles as well, but this strategy has greatly improved the regular social player's knowledge of professional doubles. The Association, with De Villiers spearheading the way, is now always on the lookout for new ways to make the game more exciting and watchable, and we can only hope that they maintain the good sense to keep the traditions that everybody repects, a part of the game.

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