2007 ATP Masters Series

The ATP Masters Series is a series of nine tennis tournaments that are part of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour, held annually throughout the year in Europe and North America. The tournaments are mandatory for the top male players on the professional circuit. The series began after the ATP took over the running of the men's tour in 1990, and was originally known as the Mercedes-Benz Super 9 series, and then the Tennis Masters Series, before adopting its present name. All the tournaments in the series had existed for some years before the Super 9 series was launched and were considered to be among the most prestigious events on the tour. Results in the Tennis Masters Series events earn players more world ranking points than regular tournaments, though not as many as Grand Slam events or the year-end Tennis Masters Cup.

Federer - Winner 2007

Federer won his tenth Grand Slam singles title when he won the 2007 Australian Open without dropping a set, defeating Fernando González of Chile in the final 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-4.

Federer then won the Dubai Duty Free Men's Open, defeating Russian Mikhail Youzhny in the final 6-4, 6-3. This raised his match record for the year to 12-0 and brought his winning streak to 41-consecutive matches. His streak ended during his next match when he lost to Guillermo Cañas in the second round of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, after winning this tournament three consecutive years (2004-2006); this loss also ended his bids to break Guillermo Vilas' record of 46-consecutive matches in a row and to tie with the eight title wins-in-a-row record.

At the Sony Ericcson Open in Miami, Florida, Federer again lost to Guillermo Cañas, this time in the fourth round in three sets, 6-7(2), 6-2, 6-7(5). It was only the fifth time he has lost back-to-back to the same player; Nadal being one of the other players to do so.[citation needed] However, he was awarded four ATP Awards during a ceremony at the tournament, making him the first player to receive four during the same year.

Justine Henin - Winner 2007

On January 4, 2007, Henin withdrew from the Australian Open and the warm-up tournament in Sydney for personal reasons, which resulted in her losing the No. 1 ranking to Maria Sharapova.

In her first tournament of the year, Henin lost in the semifinals of the Open Gaz de France to Czech Lucie Safarova 7-6(5), 6-4.

Henin then won two hardcourt tournaments in the Middle East. She won the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open for the fourth time in the last five years, defeating Amelie Mauresmo in the final 6-4, 7-5. In Doha, she won her first Qatar Total Open title, defeating Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final 6-4, 6-2. She also reached US$14 million in career prize money earnings, and on March 19th, she regained the No. 1 ranking.

At the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Henin reached the final for the first time in her career, where she lost to Serena Williams 0-6, 7-5, 6-3 after Henin had two match points at 6-0, 5-4.

Henin withdrew from the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina with an ongoing respiratory problem. Her next tournament will be the J&S Cup in Warsaw, Poland.

History

Tennis has a long history (deriving from the 'jeu de paume'), but its establishment as the modern sport can be dated to two separate roots. In 1859 Major Thomas Henry Gem, a solicitor, and his friend Batista Pereira, a Spanish merchant, who both lived in Birmingham, England played a game they named "pelota", after a Spanish ball game. The game was played on a lawn in Edgbaston. In 1872 both men moved to Leamington Spa, and with two doctors from the Warneford Hospital, played pelota on the lawn behind the Manor House Hotel (now residential apartments). Pereira joined with Dr. Frederick Haynes and Dr. A. Wellesley Tomkins to found the first lawn tennis club in the world, and played the game on nearby lawns. In 1874 they formed the Leamington Tennis Club, setting out the original rules of the game. The Courier of 23 July 1884 recorded one of the first tennis tournaments, held in the grounds of Shrubland Hall (demolished 1948).

In December 1873, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield devised a similar game for the amusement of his guests at a garden party on his estate at Nantclwyd, Wales. He based the game on the older sport of indoor tennis or real tennis ("royal tennis"), which had been invented in 12th century France and was played by French aristocrats down to the time of the French Revolution.

According to most tennis historians, modern tennis terminology also derives from this period, as Wingfield borrowed both the name and much of the French vocabulary of royal tennis and applied them to his new game:

Seeing the commercial potential of the game, Wingfield patented it in 1874, but never succeeded in enforcing his patent. Tennis spread rapidly among the leisured classes in Britain and the United States. It was first played in the U.S. at the home of Mary Ewing Outerbridge on Staten Island, New York in 1874.

In 1881 the desire to play tennis competitively led to the establishment of tennis clubs. The first championships at Wimbledon, in London were played in 1877. In 1881 the United States National Lawn Tennis Association (now the United States Tennis Association) was formed to standardize the rules and organize competitions. The comprehensive I.L.T.F. rules promulgated in 1924 have remained remarkably stable in the ensuing eighty years, the one major change being the addition of the tie-breaker system designed by James van Alen. U.S. National Men's Singles Championship, now the U.S. Open, was first held in 1881 at Newport, Rhode Island. The U.S. National Women's Singles Championships were first held in 1887. The Davis Cup, an annual competition between national teams, dates to 1900.

Tennis was for many years predominantly a sport of the English-speaking world, dominated by the United States, Britain and Australia. It was also popular in France, where the French Open dates to 1891. Thus Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the French Open and the Australian Open (dating to 1905) became and have remained the most prestigious events in tennis. Together these four events are called the Grand Slam (a term borrowed from bridge). Winning the Grand Slam, by capturing these four titles in one calendar year, is the highest ambition of most tennis players.

In 1926 promoter C.C. ("Cash and Carry") Pyle established the first professional tennis tour with a group of American and French tennis players playing exhibition matches to paying audiences. The most notable of these early professionals were the American Vinnie Richards and the Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen. For 42 years professional and amateur tennis remained strictly separate. Once a player turned pro he or she could not compete in the major (amateur) tournaments. In 1968, commercial pressures led to the abandonment of this distinction, inaugurating the Open era, in which all players could compete in all tournaments, and top players were able to make their living from tennis.

With the beginning of the Open era, the establishment of an international professional tennis circuit, and revenues from the sale of television rights, tennis has spread all over the world and has lost its upper-class English-speaking image. Since the 1970s great champions have emerged from Germany (Boris Becker, Steffi Graf), the former Czechoslovakia (Ivan Lendl, Martina Navrátilová, and Hana Mandlíková), Sweden (Björn Borg, Stefan Edberg and Mats Wilander), Brazil (Gustavo Kuerten), Russia (Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Marat Safin, and Maria Sharapova), Belgium (Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne), Spain (Juan Carlos Ferrero), Switzerland (Martina Hingis and Roger Federer) and from many other countries.

In 1954 James Van Alen founded the International Tennis Hall of Fame, a non-profit museum in Newport, Rhode Island. The building contains a large collection of tennis memorabilia as well as a hall of fame honoring prominent members and tennis players from all over the world. Each year, a grass-court tournament is hosted on the grounds that are home to the Tennis Hall of Fame, as well as an induction ceremony honoring new Hall of Fame members.

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