The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, previously known as the ITF Women's Circuit, is a series of professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

tournaments run by the

International 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. there are 211 nat ...

for female professional tennis players.

History

It serves as a developmental circuit for the

WTA Tour The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...

, which is run by the independent

Women's Tennis Association The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. The association governs the WTA Tour, which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women, and was founded to create a better future fo ...

(WTA). There are several hundred ITF Women's Circuit tournaments each year, spread across all six inhabited continents, with prize money ranging from US$15,000 to US$100,000. Players who succeed on the ITF Women's Circuit earn sufficient points to be eligible for qualifying draw or main draw entry to WTA tournaments. Until 2011 the ITF Women's Circuit was the level immediately below the main WTA Tour, but in 2012 the WTA introduced an intermediate level, the

WTA 125 tournaments WTA 125 tournaments are an international series of professional women's tennis tournaments organized by the Women's Tennis Association since 2012. Sometimes called the WTA Challenger tour (analogous to the men's ATP Challenger Series),

. There is also an

ITF Men's Circuit The ITF Men's World Tennis Tour (formerly ''ITF Men's Circuit'') is a series of professional tennis tournaments held around the world that are organized by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The tour represents the lowest rung of the me ...

, but it only incorporates the lower-level

Futures tournaments The ITF Men's World Tennis Tour (formerly ''ITF Men's Circuit'') is a series of professional tennis tournaments held around the world that are organized by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The tour represents the lowest rung of the men ...

. Mid-level men's tournaments, equivalent to the WTA 125 tournaments and the bigger money events on the ITF Women's Circuit, come under the aegis of the ATP as part of the

ATP Challenger Tour The ATP Challenger Tour (known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series) is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. It was founded in 1976 as a replacement for the ILTF Satellite Circuit (founded in 1971) as ...

. In 2019, reforms was made to the circuit, renaming it the ITF World Tennis Tour as a new umbrella name for former Pro Circuit and Junior Circuit tournaments and will serve as the player pathway between the junior game and the elite levels of professional tennis. The launch of the tour is the culmination of a series of ITF reforms designed to support talented junior players in their progression to the senior game, and target the prize money effectively at professional tournaments to enable more players to make a living as professionals.

Most Championship Winners in the ITF Tour

Singles

Doubles

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:ITF Women's Circuit Women's tennis tournaments International Tennis Federation Tennis tours and series Recurring sporting events established in 1994