The 1974 Commercial Union Assurance Grand Prix was a professional
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
circuit administered by the
International Lawn Tennis Federation
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is the governing body of world tennis, wheelchair tennis, and beach tennis. It was founded in 1913 as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by twelve national tennis associations. As of 2016, there a ...
(ILTF) which served as a forerunner to the current
Association of Tennis Professionals
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, an ...
(ATP) World Tour and the
Women's Tennis Association
The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women and was founded to create a better future for women's tenni ...
(WTA) Tour.
The circuit consisted of the four modern
Grand Slam
Grand Slam most often refers to:
* Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves
Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to:
Games and sports
* Grand slam, winning category te ...
tournaments and open tournaments recognised by the ILTF. The season-ending
Commercial Union Assurance Masters and
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...
Final are included in this calendar but did not count towards the Grand Prix ranking.
Schedule
The 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
December 1973
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Points system
The 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:
In addition a player could earn ranking points for participating in the
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...
team competition if the matches coincided with a Grand Prix tournament.
Standings
ATP rankings
These are the
ATP rankings
The Pepperstone ATP rankings are the merit-based method used by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for determining the qualification for entry as well as the seeding of players in all singles and doubles tournaments. The first rankings ...
of the top twenty singles players at the end of the 1973 season
and at the end of the 1974 season,
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.
''*The official ATP year-end rankings were listed from January 17th, 1975.''
List of tournament winners
The list of winners and number of Grand Prix singles titles won, sorted by number of titles (Grand Slam titles in bold):
*
Jimmy Connors
James Scott Connors (born September 2, 1952) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He held the top Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking for a then-record 160 consecutive weeks from 1974 to 1977 and a career total of 268 ...
(7) Melbourne, Wimbledon, Indianapolis, US Open, Los Angeles, London, Johannesburg
*
Guillermo Vilas
Guillermo Vilas (; born 17 August 1952) is an Argentine former professional tennis player. Vilas was the No. 1 of the Grand Prix seasons in 1974, 1975 and 1977, and won four Grand Slam tournaments, one year-end Masters, nine Grand Prix Super Se ...
(7) Gstaad, Hilversum, Louisville, Toronto, Tehran, Buenos Aires, Masters
*
Björn Borg
Björn Rune Borg (; born 6 June 1956) is a Swedish former world No. 1 tennis player. Between 1974 and 1981, he became the first man in the Open Era to win 11 Grand Slam singles titles with six at the French Open and five consecutively at Wimb ...
(4) Rome, French Open, Båstad, Boston
*
Ilie Năstase
Ilie Theodoriu Năstase (, born 19 July 1946) is a former World No. 1 Romanian tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 in singles from 23 August 1973 to 2 June 1974, and was the first man to hold the top position on the computerized ATP ranking ...
(4) Bournemouth, Cedar Grove, Madrid, Barcelona
*
John Newcombe
John David Newcombe AO OBE (born 23 May 1944) is an Australian former professional tennis player. He is one of the few men to have attained a world No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles. At the majors, he won seven singles titles, a fo ...
(3) Maui, Tokyo, Sydney Indoor
*
Jeff Borowiak
Jeff Borowiak (born September 25, 1949) is a former professional tennis player from the United States, who won five singles and three doubles titles during his professional career, reaching a career-high ATP singles ranking of World No. 20 in A ...
(2) Charlotte, Oslo
*
Onny Parun
Onny Parun (born 15 April 1947) is a former tennis player of Croatian descent from New Zealand, who was among the world's top 20 for five years and who reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 1971 and 1972. He made the final of the Australi ...
(2) Jakarta, Bombay
*
Stan Smith
Stanley Roger Smith (born December 14, 1946) is an American former professional tennis player. Smith is best known to non-tennis players as the namesake of a popular brand of tennis shoes. A world No. 1 player and two-time major singles cham ...
(2) Nottingham, Chicago
*
Arthur Ashe
Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an American professional tennis player who won three Grand Slam singles titles. He started to play tennis at six years old. He was the first black player selected to the Unite ...
(1) Stockholm
*
Ross Case Ross or ROSS may refer to:
People
* Clan Ross, a Highland Scottish clan
* Ross (name), including a list of people with the surname or given name Ross, as well as the meaning
* Earl of Ross, a peerage of Scotland
Places
* RoSS, the Republic of Sout ...
(1) San Francisco
*
Eddie Dibbs
Eddie Dibbs (born February 23, 1951) is a retired American tennis player also nicknamed "Fast Eddie". He attained a career-high singles ranking of world No. 5 in July 1978, winning 22 titles and being a runner-up another 20 times.
Dibbs holds t ...
(1) Hamburg
*
Jürgen Fassbender
Jürgen Fassbender (german: Faßbender, born 28 May 1948) is a retired German tennis player.
On the ATP Tour, Fassbender won three singles and 15 doubles titles. His best Grand Slam singles result was reaching the quarterfinals at the 1973 Wimb ...
(1) Munich
*
Vitas Gerulaitis
Vytautas Kevin Gerulaitis (July 26, 1954 – September 17, 1994) was an American professional tennis player, known as Vitas Gerulaitis. In 1975, he won the men's doubles title at Wimbledon, partnering with Sandy Mayer. He won the men's singles ...
(1) Vienna
*
Brian Gottfried
Brian Edward Gottfried (born January 27, 1952) is a retired American tennis player who won 25 singles titles and 54 doubles titles during his professional career. He was the runner-up in singles at the 1977 French Open, won the 1975 and 1977 Fren ...
(1) Paris Bercy
*
Rod Laver
Rodney George Laver (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former tennis player. Laver was the world number 1 ranked professional in some sources in 1964, in all sources from 1965 to 1969 and in some sources in 1970, spanning four years befor ...
(1) Bretton Woods
*
John Lloyd (1) Merion
*
Alex Metreveli
Alexander Irakliyevich Metreveli ( ka, ალექსანდრე მეტრეველი, tr, ; russian: Александр Ираклиевич Метревели ; born 2 November 1944) is a retired Soviet tennis player of Georgian b ...
(1) South Orange
*
Adriano Panatta
Adriano Panatta (born 9 July 1950) is a former professional tennis player from Italy. He won the French Open in 1976, and was the only player ever to defeat Björn Borg at Roland Garros, doing so on two occasions. He is also the only Italian man ...
(1) Florence
*
Raúl Ramírez
Raúl Ramírez (born 20 June 1953) is a Mexican retired professional tennis player. He was active during the 1970s and 1980s. Ramírez was the first player to finish first in both singles and doubles Grand Prix point standings, accomplishing th ...
(1) Columbus
*
Marty Riessen
Marty Riessen (born December 4, 1941) is an American former amateur and professional tennis player active from the 1960s to the 1980s. He was ranked as high as No. 11 in the world in singles on the ATP rankings in September 1974, though was rank ...
(1) Cincinnati
*
Ismail El Shafei
Ismail El Shafei ( ar, إسماعيل الشافعي) (born 15 November 1947) is an Egyptian former professional tennis player and president of the Egyptian Tennis Federation. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the Internatio ...
(1) Manila
*
Harold Solomon
Harold Solomon (born September 17, 1952) is an American former professional tennis player
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). ...
(1) Washington, D.C.
*
Sherwood Stewart
Sherwood Stewart (born June 6, 1946) is a former professional tennis player who was active in the 1970s and 1980s. Stewart was ranked as high as No. 60 in the world in singles on the ATP Rankings on December 31, 1978, and No. 4 in doubles on J ...
(1) Dublin
*
Roscoe Tanner
Leonard Roscoe Tanner (born October 15, 1951) is a retired American tennis player, who turned professional in 1972 and reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4 on July 30, 1979.
Tanner was famous for his big left-handed serve, which ...
(1) Christchurch
*
Balázs Taróczy
Balázs Taróczy ( hu, Taróczy Balázs; born 9 May 1954) is a retired tennis player from Hungary. The right-hander won 13 singles titles in his career, and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in April 1982.
Tennis career
Ta ...
(1) Kitzbühel
The following players won their first Grand Prix title in 1974:
*
Björn Borg
Björn Rune Borg (; born 6 June 1956) is a Swedish former world No. 1 tennis player. Between 1974 and 1981, he became the first man in the Open Era to win 11 Grand Slam singles titles with six at the French Open and five consecutively at Wimb ...
Auckland
*
Jeff Borowiak
Jeff Borowiak (born September 25, 1949) is a former professional tennis player from the United States, who won five singles and three doubles titles during his professional career, reaching a career-high ATP singles ranking of World No. 20 in A ...
Charlotte
*
Jürgen Fassbender
Jürgen Fassbender (german: Faßbender, born 28 May 1948) is a retired German tennis player.
On the ATP Tour, Fassbender won three singles and 15 doubles titles. His best Grand Slam singles result was reaching the quarterfinals at the 1973 Wimb ...
Munich
*
Vitas Gerulaitis
Vytautas Kevin Gerulaitis (July 26, 1954 – September 17, 1994) was an American professional tennis player, known as Vitas Gerulaitis. In 1975, he won the men's doubles title at Wimbledon, partnering with Sandy Mayer. He won the men's singles ...
Vienna
*
John Lloyd Merion
*
Onny Parun
Onny Parun (born 15 April 1947) is a former tennis player of Croatian descent from New Zealand, who was among the world's top 20 for five years and who reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 1971 and 1972. He made the final of the Australi ...
Jakarta
*
Ismail El Shafei
Ismail El Shafei ( ar, إسماعيل الشافعي) (born 15 November 1947) is an Egyptian former professional tennis player and president of the Egyptian Tennis Federation. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the Internatio ...
Manila
*
Harold Solomon
Harold Solomon (born September 17, 1952) is an American former professional tennis player
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). ...
Washington, D.C.
*
Sherwood Stewart
Sherwood Stewart (born June 6, 1946) is a former professional tennis player who was active in the 1970s and 1980s. Stewart was ranked as high as No. 60 in the world in singles on the ATP Rankings on December 31, 1978, and No. 4 in doubles on J ...
Dublin
*
Balázs Taróczy
Balázs Taróczy ( hu, Taróczy Balázs; born 9 May 1954) is a retired tennis player from Hungary. The right-hander won 13 singles titles in his career, and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in April 1982.
Tennis career
Ta ...
Kitzbühel
See also
*
1974 World Championship Tennis circuit
*
1974 USLTA Indoor Circuit
*
1974 WTA Tour
The 1974 WTA Tour was composed of the fourth annual Virginia Slims Circuit and Women's International Grand Prix, a tour of tennis tournaments for female tennis players, sponsored by Virginia Slims cigarettes. The WTA signed their first television ...
Notes
References
External links
Commercial Union Grand Prix tournamentsATP – History Mens Professional Tours
Further reading
*
{{Men's tennis seasons
Grand Prix tennis circuit seasons
Grand Prix
Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour
Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to:
Arts and entertainment ...