The ITF World Tennis Tour went from strength-to-strength in 2023, bolstering its position as a fundamental pillar of professional tennis and the stage for the development of the game’s future stars.

Over 10,600 players took part in over 1,135 tournaments as competitive opportunities increased on pre-pandemic levels (up from the 1,097 events held in 2019).

A total of 571 men’s and 564 women’s tournaments were staged through the year on the ITF World Tennis Tour (up from 533 women’s and 526 men’s events in 2022) with 73 different countries playing host to a total of 50,605* main draw matches - including 35,060* in singles and 15,545* in doubles.

Prize money soared to new record highs, with $17.5million paid out for women’s events in 2023 (up $2.5million on last year) and $11.2million on offer to the men (from $10.6million in 2022).

The ITF World Tennis Tour made significant strides towards gender parity in 2023, narrowing the gap with the ATP Challenger Tour in the number of women’s equivalent challenger events on offer. There were 189 events across the ITF W40-W60-W80-W100 + WTA 125 categories in 2023, only marginally shy of the 196 ATP Challenger events.

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A record number of W60, W80 and W100 tournaments took place, with 103 events held across those three levels – nine more than in 2022.

Mandatory hospitality was also introduced at all W80 and W100 events, while the new W40 category also proved a success with 53 tournaments staged, providing more opportunity and increasing investment in the game.

The ITF World Tennis Tour continues to play a crucial role in driving rising talent from junior competition on to the ATP and WTA Tours.

Mirra Andreeva was the standout example, winning back-to-back W60 titles in Switzerland in April (her fifth and sixth titles on the ITF World Tennis Tour), before going on make her breakthrough on the WTA Tour. After an incredible showing as a qualifier in Madrid, the 16-year-old went on to achieve stunning runs to the third round at Roland Garros and fourth-round at Wimbledon, and finished the year in the world’s Top 50.

The likes of Emma Navarro (who won five ITF titles, including two at W100 level) and Zhuoxuan Bai established themselves in the Top 100, while Marina Stakusic, Celine Naef (3 titles) and Alina Korneeva (2 titles) delivered noteworthy displays and a sign of what’s to come.

Sixteen-year-old Brenda Fruhvirtova also continues to fast-track her prodigious talent on the ITF World Tennis Tour. She backed up a breakout 2022 season, in which she collected 8 titles at W25 level, with another phenomenal year in 2023 that saw her claim seven more singles titles including her biggest yet at W60 Hechingen, and a further four crowns at W40 tournaments.

Australian Arina Rodionova, who is more than twice the Czech’s age, tied Fruhvirtova for the most ITF women’s singles titles in 2023. Rodionova also compiled the most match-wins on the women’s Tour with 75 – a remarkable feat of endurance and consistency given that it came off the back of a wrist surgery in June 2022 that kept her away from the tour for six months and could easily have spelt the end of her playing days.

China’s Wang Yafan recorded the year’s longest winning streak, going on a 24-match tear that took in four titles between May and July and ended with a runner-up finish at W60 Dallas.

On the men’s side Portugal’s Goncalo Oliveira was a standout performer, winning 89 matches, achieving an impressive 79% win-percentage and claiming nine titles to climb from outside the Top 500 to No. 224 by the year-end.

Korean teenager Gerard Campana Lee made the biggest leap into the Top 400 on the men’s side, jumping from No. 1728 at the turn of the year to No. 376 in early December, while Yuliia Starodubtseva and Amandine Hesse made similarly mighty jumps – Starodubtseva going from unranked to No. 151 after winning her first four ITF singles titles, and Hesse leaping from No. 1259 to No. 311.

Ukraine’s Valeriya Strakhova (11 titles) and Germany’s Jako Schnaitter (10 titles) were the star performers in doubles, both attaining double figures for team titles won in 2023. 

Schnaitter won 10 men’s doubles titles with seven different partners to rocket 908 places to a career-high No. 217 in the ATP doubles rankings by the year’s end, while Stakhova (8 different partners) obtained a career-high WTA doubles ranking of No. 109 in November.

The new season will see a fresh crop of emerging talent join those already seeking to make their mark on the ITF World Tennis Tour - and on to the ATP and WTA Tours - in 2024.

(*Figures accurate as at 19 December 2023)