The manipulation of Grand Slam tournaments by professional promoters at the start of the Open Era led promoter Jack Kramer, the top male tennis player in the world in the 1940s and 1950s, to conceive of the Grand Prix in 1969. He described it as "a series of tournaments with a money bonus pool that would be split up on the basis of a cumulative point system." This would encourage the best players to compete regularly in the series, so that they could share in the bonus at the end and qualify for the special championship tournament climaxing the year. When only a few contract players showed up for the
1970 French Open, the
International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) approved Kramer's Grand Prix proposal. In April 1970, its president Ben Barnett announced the creation of the Grand Prix circuit, on an experimental basis during its first year. The first World Championship Tennis tournament was held 20 January 1968 in Sydney, Australia. The first
NTL tournament was held 18–21 March 1968 in São Paulo, Brazil. In July 1970, the WCT absorbed the NTL. In 1971, WCT ran a twenty-tournament circuit with the year-ending
WCT Finals held in November. At the end of 1970, a panel of journalists had ranked the best players in the world. The best thirty-two men based on this ranking were invited to play the 1971 WCT circuit, which included
Ilie Năstase,
Stan Smith,
Jan Kodeš,
Željko Franulović, and
Clark Graebner. The Australian Open was part of the WCT circuit while the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open were Grand Prix events. The conflict between the ILTF (running the Grand Prix) and WCT was so strong that Rosewall, Gimeno, Laver, Emerson, and other WCT players boycotted the
1971 US Open. The third professional circuit that year was the
U. S. Indoor Circuit run by
Bill Riordan, the future manager of
Jimmy Connors. In July 1971, the ILTF voted to ban all WCT contract professionals from competing in ILTF tournaments and from using ILTF facilities from the beginning of 1972 onwards. The 1972 editions of the
French Open and the
Wimbledon Championships excluded all contract professional players. Then in April 1972, the ILTF and WCT agreed to divide the 1973 tour into a WCT circuit that ran from January through May and a Grand Prix circuit that ran for the rest of the year. The conflict between the ILTF and WCT led all tennis players to attend the
1972 US Open where they agreed to form their own syndicate, the
Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), through the efforts of Jack Kramer,
Donald Dell, and Cliff Drysdale. In 1973, there were four rival professional circuits: the WCT circuit battled with the U. S. Indoor Circuit from January to April and the Grand Prix until July; both tours competed with the "European Spring Circuit" until June. In that same year, the ATP created controversy by calling for a boycott of the
1973 Wimbledon Championships after one of its members, Niki Pilić, was suspended by the
Yugoslav Tennis Federation for failing to play in a
Davis Cup tie against New Zealand. The ATP boycott went ahead after negotiations failed, with only three members of the organisation – Roger Taylor, Ilie Năstase, and
Ray Keldie – breaking the picket. They were later fined for this. The men's draws for that year were subsequently made up of second-string players, lucky losers, and older players such as
Neale Fraser, who reached the final of the men's doubles with fellow Australian
John Cooper. The draw also showcased future talents such as
Björn Borg,
Vijay Amritraj,
Sandy Mayer, and
John Lloyd amid record crowds.
Governance The governance of the Grand Prix was led by the
Men's International Professional Tennis Council (MIPTC) from 1974 through 1989. (Its name was shortened to the Men's Tennis Council (MTC) in 1988.) The MIPTC's duties included imposing fines for violations of its Code of Conduct, drug testing, and administrating the Grand Prix circuit. It also moved the Australian Open from its December date – which had been adopted in 1977 so that it could be included in the Grand Prix points system – to January for the 1987 edition so that the
Grand Prix Masters could be held in December from 1986 onwards. It failed, however, to prevent the number of tournaments on the Grand Prix circuit from growing, with 48 being held in 1974 compared to 75 in 1989. ==Integration and the end==