Introduction
With a blend of athleticism and fun, tennis has evolved as a popular sport worldwide. Tennis tournaments capture the hearts of millions of people each year because the world’s best tennis players participate in them. Be it the popular championship titles or hefty prize money, there are different reasons for which people may compete in tennis tournaments.
There are tennis tournaments for different levels and skills of tennis players like junior tennis tournaments or even professional tennis tournament. The popularity of junior tennis tournaments in Singapore cannot be stated enough. These tournaments provide a number of opportunities for young players where they can play tennis at a competitive level while having fun on the court.
Now let’s learn about the different types of tennis tournaments in Singapore. So let’s get started.
Types of Tennis Tournament
1. Junior Tennis Tournament
As the name itself suggests, junior tennis tournaments are particularly organized for juniors aged 18 or below. These tournaments are a great method for junior tennis players to refine their tennis skills and gain experience to compete at higher levels of tennis competitions.
Junior tennis tournaments include single and double matches where players can compete in different age categories.
2. Professional Tennis Tournament
Professional tennis tournaments are prestigious tournaments of tennis under which the best tennis players from all around the world gather together to compete. Since they are professionals, good prizes are distributed in the tournaments. Many of the professional tennis tournaments are part of the WTA Tour for women or the ATP tour for men.
Different professional tennis tournaments are held like ATP challengers, Grand Slam tournaments, WTA finals, ATP finals etc.
3. Tennis Associations
Different types of tennis associations take care of the tennis tournaments held in Singapore. Let’s have a look at these types of associations.
Singapore Tennis Association (STA)
Singapore Tennis Association is the representative of this sport in Singapore. It is responsible for organising single as well as double tournaments of tennis in both adult and junior categories. The best part of this association is that they operate all around the year so there are competitions held by them all year long.
Ladies Tennis Singapore (LTS)
Ladies Tennis Singapore is also a women-only tennis competition that is supported by the Singapore Tennis Association. There are different divisions or levels of tennis in this competition namely Premier A, Premier B, division 1 and division 2. Each team in this competition has 6 to 8 players.
Women’s International Tennis Singapore (WITS)
As the name itself suggests, this tennis association organizes tennis specifically for women. WITS holds 2 seasons of tennis matches per year, in the Spring and Autumn.
Generally, there are 8 distinct divisions or levels of tennis in these competitions. Statistics show that around 600 women participate in these competitions and around 30% of them are newbies in the field.
International Tennis Federation (ITF)
This is an association that organises tennis at international level. High level players from all around the world gather to play tennis in Singapore in these competitions.
Difference Between ATP & WTA Types of Tennis Tournaments
ATP organises professional tennis tournaments for men which are known as ATP tournaments. On the other hand, WTA organises professional tennis tournaments for women known as WTA tournaments.
Let’s have a look at the major differences between these two types of tournaments:
1. Prizes
Generally, ATP organises men’s tennis tournaments and has higher prize money when compared to WTP tournaments.
2. Schedule
The schedules of both these tournaments are quite different and hence they are held separately. Men’s tournament generally has more competition when compared to the women’s one.
3. Ranking system
Though both these tournaments provide points based on the performance of the players, their point system is discrete. Once a winner of the men’s tournament received 2000 ranking points, whereas a winner of the women’s tournament received 1300 ranking points.
4. Rules
The rules of tennis remain the same in both tournaments. However, there can be small differences in the rules and regulations related to the implementation of the tournament.
Difference between Junior Tournaments & Professional Tournaments
Moving on to junior tennis tournaments and professional tournaments. Both these tournaments also have slight differences. First of all, the junior tournaments are implemented on a smaller scale when compared to the professional tournaments. As a result, there are fewer players and smaller prize money in these tournaments.
Secondly, the format and rules of junior championships are quite different when compared to the professional tournament junior championships. Junior tournaments generally include Round Robin format.
Conclusion
Thus, tournaments in Singapore play a major role in helping the tennis players to show their athletic powers. These tournaments inspire individuals to fight with challenges both on the court and off it.
They also help the players to upskill themselves, foster community engagement, and nurture talent. Moreover, these tournaments will remain integral to helping Singapore gain a brighter and more inclusive future.
So if you want to participate in a tennis tournament then get ready to enroll yourself and improve your tennis skills.
Good luck!
