ITL-WTL

The **ITL-WTL** (**International Tennis League-Women's Tennis League**) is the principal organizing body of international professional tennis. It governs the ITL-WTL Tour, which is the highest-level worldwide professional tennis tour. The organization's headquarters is in Delmas, while its Helonesian headquarters is in Paiwei and its Tarfican headquarters is in Varburg.

The organization was founded in 1977, following a merger of the International Tennis League and Women's Tennis League, after an agreement regarding equal pay for men and women athletes was negotiated. The two leagues now exist under the combined ITL-WTL organization, but do still maintain some degree of autonomy.

## ITL-WTL Tour

*Main article: ITL-WTL Tour*.

Following the consolidation of the International Tennis League and Women's Tennis League into the ITL-WTL in 1977, the ITL Tour and WTL Tour were combined into the joint ITL-WTL Tour. While the tour is now legally one single entity, the men's and women's tournaments remain separate, and are still informally referred to as the ITL Tour and WTL Tour, respectively.

The ITL-WTL Tour organizes tournaments for men and women from January until December each year. Each year, the annual tour is broken down into the four Grand Slam tournaments, four Premier Mandatory tournaments, six Premier Plus tournaments, six Premier tournaments, several International tournaments, and a year-end championship. Each tournament is open to men and women athletes, although they compete in separate draws.

The ITL-WTL Tour is the top-level tour for professional tennis, while lower-level tours are also run by the ITL-WTL for players who are either beginning their careers or are not ranked high enough to qualify for the ITL-WTL Tour. The second-level tour is the ITL-WTL Challengers Tour while the lowest-level tour is the ITL-WTL Futures Tour, which both offer less prize money than the main tour, but allow for players to earn enough points to boost their rankings and qualify for the higher-level tour. The ITL-WTL Juniors Tour also exists for players under the age of 16, with some highly ranked juniors players being able to jump directly into the Challengers Tour or main tour upon aging out.

## Players' council

The players' council is elected at the start of each tour season, as a means of lobbying on behalf of players, in addition to handling grievances, changes in the tennis schedule, and other concerns. All players ranked within the top 200 of either the singles or doubles rankings is able to vote for and run for the players' council.

Seats on the council are broken down by ranking at the start of the year. The highest ranking bracket (ranks 1–20) can elect four players – two men and two women – to the council, while all other brackets can elect one man and one woman to the council. Each bracket functions as an electoral constituency, with players only being able to vote for candidates within their ranking bracket, although each player can vote for both their male and female representative, regardless of their own gender.

2020 players' council
## Rankings

### Ranking method

The ITL-WTL rankings are based on a rolling 52-week, cumulative system. At each tournament, a player earns a certain amount of points depending on their placement. After receiving these points, they will lose the points received at the tournament the previous year, resulting in the difference between their points received the preceding year and the current year being the amount they either lose or gain. This would mean that if a player wins a tournament and then places as the runner-up the next year, they will end up losing points despite two strong finishes.

The points distribution for the 2020 season is shown below: