The 1974 Commercial Union Assurance Grand Prix was a professional tennis circuit administered by the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) which served as a forerunner to the current Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) World Tour and the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour.[1] The circuit consisted of the four modern Grand Slam tournaments and open tournaments recognised by the ILTF. The season-ending Commercial Union Assurance Masters and Davis Cup Final are included in this calendar but did not count towards the Grand Prix ranking.[2]
Details | |
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Duration | 26 December 1973 – 10 December 1974 |
Edition | 5th |
Tournaments | 49 |
Categories | TC events (3) GPM events (1) AA events (12) A events (6) B events (17) C events (10) |
Achievements (singles) | |
Most tournament titles | ![]() ![]() |
Most tournament finals | ![]() |
Prize money leader | ![]() |
Points leader | ![]() |
← 1973 1975 → |
Schedule
editThe Grand Prix circuit was scheduled from May until December so that it would not to conflict with the competing World Championship Tennis circuit which ran from January until early May.
- Key
Triple Crown |
Grand Prix Masters |
Group AA events |
Group A events |
Group B events |
Group C events |
Team events |
December 1973
editWeek | Tournament | Champions | Runners-up | Semifinalists | Quarterfinalists |
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26 Dec | Australian Open Melbourne, Australia Grand Slam Group B Grass – $33,400 – 64S/35D Singles – Doubles |
Jimmy Connors 7–6, 6–4, 4–6, 6–3 |
Phil Dent | Ross Case John Alexander |
John Newcombe Colin Dibley Bob Giltinan Vladimir Zednik |
Ross Case Geoff Masters 6–7, 6–3, 6–4 |
Syd Ball Bob Giltinan |
May
editJune
editJuly
editAugust
editSeptember
editOctober
editNovember
editDecember
editWeek | Tournament | Champions | Runners-up | Semifinalists | Quarterfinalists |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
10 Dec | Commercial Union Assurance Masters Melbourne, Australia Masters Grand Prix Grass – $100,000 – 8S Singles |
Guillermo Vilas 7–6, 6–2, 3–6, 3–6, 6–4 |
Ilie Năstase | Raúl Ramírez John Newcombe |
Round robin Björn Borg Onny Parun Manuel Orantes Harold Solomon |
Points system
editThe tournaments of the Grand Prix circuit were divided into five groups. Group TC consisted of the Triple Crown events—the French Open, the Wimbledon Championships, and the US Open—while the other tournaments were divided into four other groups—AA, A, B, and C—by prize money and draw size. Group AA tournaments had a minimum prize money of $100,000 while the minimum for Group A, B and C tournaments was $75,000, $50,000 and $25,000 respectively. Points were allocated based on these groups and the finishing position of a player in a tournament. No points were awarded to first-round losers, and ties were settled by the number of tournaments played. Grand Prix points were also allocated to doubles results for the first time this year and are listed in brackets in the points allocation below:
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In addition a player could earn ranking points for participating in the Davis Cup team competition if the matches coincided with a Grand Prix tournament.
Standings
editRk | Name | TC | AA | A | B | C | Played | Titles | Prize money | Bonus Pool | Points | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Played | Titles | Played | Titles | Played | Titles | Played | Titles | Played | Titles | |||||||
1 | Guillermo Vilas | 3 | 0 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 20 | 6 | $119,844 | $100,000 | 797 |
2 | Jimmy Connors | 2 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 7 | $130,760 | $55,000 | 714 |
3 | Manuel Orantes | 3 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 20 | 0 | $86,872 | $37,500 | 622 |
4 | Björn Borg | 3 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 4 | $97,616 | $27,500 | 607 |
5 | Raúl Ramírez | 3 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 1 | $60,775 | $22,500 | 488 |
6 | Ilie Năstase | 3 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 4 | $73,198 | $19,750 | 482 |
7 | Onny Parun | 3 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 25 | 2 | $61,552 | $17,750 | 452.5 |
8 | Harold Solomon | 2 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 1 | $58,705 | $16,000 | 429 |
9 | Arthur Ashe | 3 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 1 | $53,119 | $15,000 | 422 |
10 | Stan Smith | 3 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 2 | $56,700 | $14,000 | 416 |
11 | Roscoe Tanner | 3 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 19 | 1 | $51,077 | $13,000 | 397.5 |
12 | John Newcombe | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 3 | $62,475 | – | 397.25 |
13 | Brian Gottfried | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 20 | 0 | $50,915 | $12,000 | 370 |
14 | Tom Okker | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | $42,539 | $11,500 | 333 |
15 | Marty Riessen | 3 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 1 | $42,316 | $11,000 | 331 |
ATP rankings
editThese are the ATP rankings of the top twenty singles players at the end of the 1973 season [3] and at the end of the 1974 season,[4] with numbers of ranking points, points averages, numbers of tournaments played, year-end rankings in 1974, highest and lowest positions during the season and number of spots gained or lost from the first rankings to the year-end rankings.
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*The official ATP year-end rankings were listed from January 17th, 1975.
List of tournament winners
editThe list of winners and number of Grand Prix singles titles won, sorted by number of titles (Grand Slam titles in bold):
- Jimmy Connors (7) Melbourne, Wimbledon, Indianapolis, US Open, Los Angeles, London, Johannesburg
- Guillermo Vilas (7) Gstaad, Hilversum, Louisville, Toronto, Tehran, Buenos Aires, Masters
- Björn Borg (4) Rome, French Open, Båstad, Boston
- Ilie Năstase (4) Bournemouth, Cedar Grove, Madrid, Barcelona
- John Newcombe (3) Maui, Tokyo, Sydney Indoor
- Jeff Borowiak (2) Charlotte, Oslo
- Onny Parun (2) Jakarta, Bombay
- Stan Smith (2) Nottingham, Chicago
- Arthur Ashe (1) Stockholm
- Ross Case (1) San Francisco
- Eddie Dibbs (1) Hamburg
- Jürgen Fassbender (1) Munich
- Vitas Gerulaitis (1) Vienna
- Brian Gottfried (1) Paris Bercy
- Rod Laver (1) Bretton Woods
- John Lloyd (1) Merion
- Alex Metreveli (1) South Orange
- Adriano Panatta (1) Florence
- Raúl Ramírez (1) Columbus
- Marty Riessen (1) Cincinnati
- Ismail El Shafei (1) Manila
- Harold Solomon (1) Washington, D.C.
- Sherwood Stewart (1) Dublin
- Roscoe Tanner (1) Christchurch
- Balázs Taróczy (1) Kitzbühel
The following players won their first Grand Prix title in 1974:
- Björn Borg Auckland
- Jeff Borowiak Charlotte
- Jürgen Fassbender Munich
- Vitas Gerulaitis Vienna
- John Lloyd Merion
- Onny Parun Jakarta
- Ismail El Shafei Manila
- Harold Solomon Washington, D.C.
- Sherwood Stewart Dublin
- Balázs Taróczy Kitzbühel
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ South Africa won by default after the Indian Government refused to let their Davis Cup team play; this was in protest against the racial policies of the South African Government.
References
edit- ^ "How it All Began". ATPWorldTour.com. Retrieved 3 March 2011.
- ^ John Barrett, ed. (1975). World of Tennis '75: a BP and Commercial Union yearbook. London: Queen Anne Press. pp. 27–32. ISBN 9780362002171.
- ^ "ATP Rankings (singles) as of December 14, 1973". atpworldtour.com. ATP Tour, Inc. 14 December 1973.
- ^ "ATP Rankings (singles) as of January 17, 1975". atpworldtour.com. ATP Tour, Inc.
- ^ "ATP Rankings (singles) 14 Dec 1973". ATP. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
- ^ "ATP Year-end top 20". ATP. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
Further reading
edit- Collins, Bud (2010). The Bud Collins History of Tennis: An Authoritative Encyclopedia and Record Book (2nd ed.). New York: New Chapter Press. ISBN 978-0-942257-70-0.