The ITF World Tennis Tour has continued to develop and grow in 2024, with additional investment seeing record prize money paid out to players on the tour while new records were also set in terms of numbers of players and events. 

A total of 10,979 players took part in 1,200 tournaments as competitive opportunities increased (up from the 1,135 events held in 2023). 

A total of 598 men’s and 602 women’s tournaments were staged through the year on the ITF World Tennis Tour (up from 564 women’s and 571 men’s events in 2023) with 72 different hosting countries.  

A record $17.9million in prize money paid out for women’s events in 2024 (up from $17.5million in 2023) with a record $11.3million on offer to the men (up from $11.1million in 2022). 

The ITF World Tennis Tour also continued the journey towards gender parity in 2024, an important part of Advantage All, the ITF’s gender equality strategy. There were 201 events across the ITF World Tennis Tour W50-W75-W100 and WTA 125 categories in 2024, a record number and only marginally shy of the 210 events on the ATP Challenger Tour.  

Czechia’s Marek Gengel led the Tour for most men’s singles titles, with nine titles to his name this year, followed by South Africa’s Philip Henning with seven titles. In women’s singles events, four players won six titles each – Great Britain’s Sonay Kartal, Argentina’s Solana Sierra, Romania’s Patricia Maria Tig and Indonesia’s Janice Tjen. 

At W50-level and above, Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima has enjoyed the most successful season on the ITF World Tennis Tour, with five title-victories – and those results have helped her finish the year at a career-high No. 55 in the WTA rankings. For Kartal, who has also finished the season inside the WTA Top 100, success on the ITF World Tennis Tour proved the catalyst for success at a higher level, with the 23-year-old winning her first WTA title at the Jasmin Open in Monastir in September.  

Gengel also led the tour for most men’s singles match-wins, compiling an 83-21 win-loss record this season, while Slovakia’s Katarina Kuzmova won the most women’s singles matches, ending the year with a 66-27 record. 

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 – with six notable examples highlighted in the ITF’s Class of 2024, which was announced last week. 

The ITF’s ‘Class of…’ series recognises and celebrates players who have had a successful year on the ITF World Tennis Tour, identifying the year’s most promising and breakthrough talents, and those predicted to go on to bigger and better things next year. Players to have previously been recognised in the ‘Class of…’ series include Jakub Mensik (2022) and Mirra Andreeva (2023), both of whom have since established themselves at the top of the game. The six players included in the Class of 2024 were selected by an expert panel from a longlist of 14 players. 

The members of the Class of 2024 are aged between 17 and 20 years old, and all have won titles at ITF World Tennis Tour men’s and women’s events this season. American 19-year-old Learner Tien, a combined four title-victories on the ITF World Tennis Tour with three titles on the ATP Challenger Tour this season, while Argentina’s Sierra won six ITF World Tennis Tour titles, including four on home soil.  

The other four members of the ITF Class of 2024 are: Nicolai Budkov Kjaer (NOR), Iva Jovic (USA), Sara Saito (JPN) and Tereza Valentova (CZE). 

The 2024 season has also seen the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors continue to grow, with 18,505 players competing at 980 events: click here to read the full article.