Where We’ve Been: The 2019 ATP World Tour and ATP Challenger Tour in Maps (and Numbers!)

Key:
Blue = Hard Court
Red = Clay
Green = Grass
Yellow = Carpet

Large Triangle = Grand Slam
Large Hexagon = Masters 1000
Large Circle = ATP 500
Small Circle = ATP 250
Small Diamond = Challenger Tour 80-125
Square = Special Event (Tour Finals, DC Finals, Next Gen Finals, and Laver Cup)

World Overview:

There were 227 ATP/Challenger tournaments (plus the slams and Davis Cup Finals ran by the ITF) in 2019, which are all included on this map.

227 tournaments worldwide in 2019

*Disclaimer: I don’t guarantee every statistic is correct, but I’ve made my best effort to ensure accuracy. Where inaccuracies occur, I note them. This post is for entertainment purposes; it’s not meant to be empirical.
Also, I apologize that my map program is not great.

By the numbers:

Both Tours Combined

Of the 227 combined events worldwide, 127 were on hardcourt (83 HC/44 IH); 85 were on clay, including 4 indoors; 11 were on grass, and 3 were on indoor carpet.

Total number of tournaments by continent:

Europe109 (60 clay, 38 HC including 33 indoor and 5 outdoor, 9 grass, 2 indoor carpet)

109 tournaments in Europe in 2019

North America – 51 (44 HC including 9 IH, 6 clay, 1 grass)

51 tournaments in North America in 2019

South America – 11 (all on red clay)

11 tournaments in South America in 2019

Africa2 (both on red clay)

Only 2 tournaments in Africa in 2019

Asia – 43 (34 HC including 3 IH, 7 clay including 2 indoors, 1 grass, 1 indoor carpet)

43 tournaments in Asia in 2019

Australia/Oceania – 11 (all on outdoor hardcourt)

11 tournaments in Australia/Oceania in 2019

Breakdown by tour

ATP Tour
There were 68 ATP events in 2019 worldwide, plus DC Finals (4 slams, 9 Masters 1000s, 13 500s, 39 250s, plus the ATP Tour Finals, Next Gen Finals, and Laver Cup – the latter two being the lone events not awarding ATP Points, along with DC).

By surface:
•Hardcourt – 39 (23 outdoor, 16 indoor)
•Clay – 21 (including 1 indoor)
•Grass – 8

By Continent:

Europe – 37 (16 indoor hardcourt, 15 clay, 6 grass, 0 on outdoor hardcourt!)

North America – 14 (11 in USA, 1 in Canada, 2 in Mexico; 11 outdoor hardcourt, 1 indoor hardcourt, 1 clay, 1 grass)

•South America – 4 (including 1 on indoor clay)

Africa – 1 (clay)

Asia – 9 (4 in China, 1 in Tokyo, 1 in India, 1 in Turkey, 2 in the Middle East; 8 outdoor hardcourt, 1 on grass)

Australia/Oceania – 4 (3 in Australia, 1 in NZ; all outdoor hardcourt)

Challenger Tour
There were 158 Challenger Tour events in 2019 worldwide.

CH125s: 20
CH110s: 7
CH100s: 11
CH90s: 21
CH80s: 99

By Surface:
•Hardcourt – 87 (59 outdoor, 28 indoor)
•Clay – 65 (including 3 indoors)
•Grass – 3
•Indoor Carpet – 3

By Continent:

Europe – 72 (45 clay, 22 hardcourt (17 IH, 5 OH), 3 grass, 2 indoor carpet)

– Iberian Peninsula – 10 (8 clay including 1 indoor clay, 2 outdoor hardcourt)

– France – 15 (5 clay, 9 indoor HC, 1 outdoor)

– UK – 4 (3 grass, 1 indoor hardcourt)

– Germany – 9 (5 clay, 2 indoor hardcourt, 2 indoor carpet)

– Italy – 18 (15 clay, 2 indoor hardcourt, 1 outdoor HC)

72 Challengers in Europe in 2019
10 Challengers in Iberia in 2019
15 Challengers in France and 4 in UK in 2019
18 Challengers in Italy in 2019
Not many tournaments in the Balkans and Eastern Europe in 2019
Just 4 tournaments in Scandinavia and 2 in Russia in 2019

North America – 37 (32 HC including 8 IH, 5 clay)

– USA – 26 (23 HC, including 7 IH, 3 green clay)

– Canada – 5 (all HC, including 1 IH)

– Mexico – 5 (4 HC, 1 clay)

– Dominican Republic- 1 (green clay)

37 Challengers in North America in 2019
26 of them in the U.S., the most of any country

South America – 7 (all red clay)

7 Challengers in South America in 2019, all of them CH 80s on red clay

Africa – 1 (clay)

Just one Challenger on the entire African continent in 2019, a CH 80 in Tunisia

Asia – 34 (26 HC including 3 IH , 7 clay, 1 carpet)

– China – 12 (9 outdoor HC, 3 clay including 2 indoor clay)

– Kazakhstan – 5 (2 HC including 1 IH, 3 clay)

– South Korea – 3 (all HC)

– Japan – 3 (all HC, including 1 IH)

– India (a country of 1.4 billion!) – 2(!) (all HC)

– Taipei – 2 (1 IH, 1 Indoor Carpet)

– Thailand – 2 (both HC)

– Uzbekistan – 2 (1 HC, 1 Clay)

– Vietnam – 1 (HC)

– Israel – 1 (HC)

– Turkey – 1 (HC)

34 Challengers in Asia in 2019
12 Challengers in China in 2019
7 Challengers in Central Asia, 2 in the Middle East, and 2 in India in 2019

Australia/Oceania – 7 (All outdoor HC and all in Australia except New Caledonia)

7 Challengers in Australia in 2019

Let’s break it down by ATP points

There was a total of 48,930 points available to winners of each tournament in the world each week (for example, in a week with a masters and a challenger 80, that week offers 1080 to winners for that week).

ATP World Tour points – 34,750 points
Grand Slams – 8000
Tour Finals – 1500
Masters 1000s – 9000
ATP 500s – 6500
ATP 250s – 9750

ATP Challenger Tour – 14,180 points
CH125s – 2500
CH110s – 770
CH100s – 1100
CH90s – 1890
CH80s- 7920

By surface across both tours*:
Hardcourt – 28,375
Clay – 15,635
Grass – 4650
Carpet – 295

*Note: These numbers are off by 60 points (they total 48,995 vs the correct 48,930), and I cannot figure out why. They are predominately correct though. Probably just a misplaced challenger somewhere, but again, I’ve triple checked and can’t find the source of the error.

By surface ATP World Tour:
Hardcourt – 20,500
Clay – 10,000
Grass – 4250

By surface ATP Challenger Tour:
Hardcourt – 7875
Clay – 5635
Grass – 375
Carpet – 295

Points by continent:

Europe24,535* (7930 HC, 12,185 clay, 4250 grass, 170 indoor carpet)

(Rest of the World – 24,625)

*Again, these numbers are off by a bit, but it’s too much work to figure out where the error is. The numbers are close though, and are sufficient to tell the story.

– Iberia: 2570 (2400 clay, 170 HC)

⁃ France: 6435 (3755 clay, 2680 HC)

⁃ UK: 4830 (3250 grass, 1580 HC)

⁃ Italy: 2495 (2255 clay, 240 HC)

⁃ Germany: 2260 (1180 clay, 750 grass, 170 indoor carpet, 160 HC)

North America – 12,305 (11,340 HC, 715 clay, 250 grass)

⁃ United States: 9525 (8765 HC, 510 clay, 250 grass)

⁃ Canada: 1430 (all HC)

⁃ Mexico: 1225 (1145 HC, 80 clay)

⁃ Dominican Republic: 125 (clay)

South America – 1810 (all clay)

Africa – 330 (all clay)

Asia – 6880 (5900 HC, 605 clay, 250 grass, 125 indoor carpet)


⁃ China: 3175 (2890 HC, 285 clay)


⁃ India: 410 (population 1.3 billion)


⁃ Middle East: 1160 (910 HC, 250 grass)

Australia/Oceania – 3330 (all HC)

Miscellaneous Information

• Week with most points available to winners: Week 23 (Second week of Wimbledon. 2485 points available.)

• Week with the least points available: Week 47 (80 points available at Maia Challenger)

• First event of the year: Brisbane (by a few hours over Doha and Pune)

• Last tournament of the year: Davis Cup Finals by a few hours over Maia)

• Earliest tournament of the day (tournament closest to the left side of the international date line): Auckland ATP 250

• Latest tournament of the day (tournament closest to the right side of the international date line): Vancouver CH 100

Conclusion

Gonna try to keep it short due to the inappropriate length of this article.

Europe had almost half of the total tournaments worldwide and about half of the points available were in Europe. It is clay dominant, with 60 of the 85 clay tournaments worldwide. 54% of all ATP tournaments were played on European soil, and 46% of all challengers.

North America had the second most tournaments overall. The U.S. had the most tournaments overall of any country (37 tournaments overall; France second at 22) and the most harcourt tournaments of any country.

South America needs more tournaments.

India has one tournament for every 466,666,667 people (3 total, for a population of 1.4 billion).

The entire continent of Africa has two (2!!!) tournaments: the lowest tier ATP and the lowest tier Challenger. Total of 330 points available on the entire continent in 2019. That has to get better.

Germany stuck out to me as being perhaps the most diverse, having 7 clay, 2 grass, 2 hardcourt, and 2 carpet tournaments.

When the Tour Finals leave London after next year, exactly 80 non-grass points will be up for grabs on UK soil if nothing else changes.

Italy loves them some clay. 90% of all points up for grabs in Italia are on the red stuff.

Greece needs a tournament.

And finally, Hawaii needs a damn tournament! Mahalo and aloha 🤙🏼

Sunset on the Big Island

By: Judson Wall (Tennis in Aloha, @jwallmizzou)

6 thoughts on “Where We’ve Been: The 2019 ATP World Tour and ATP Challenger Tour in Maps (and Numbers!)

  1. Great info, thank you! Is the 250 in Los Cabos, Mexico missing?
    Bummer Hawai’i doesn’t have an event anymore … there was a Challenger the 2ns week of the Aussie Open for a while, yes?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks! I enjoyed working on it.

      Yes, there used to be a Challenger here. Unfortunately not anymore, although there’s a pretty decent pre-season exhibition around Christmas with some big names.

      And Los Cabos is there. It’s the small circle above the larger circle on the west side of Mexico. Small circle = ATP 250.

      Like

    1. Yes, Africa was my favorite map to do because of the story it told.

      India’s map tells the story of India itself: a huge, burgeoning, grossly underachieving country. In tennis as in life.

      Like

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