The 3 Categories im Professional tennis

In professional tennis you can differentiate between 3 tours, the Future Tour, the Challenger Tour and the ATP Tour. There are also differences within these 3 levels, for example on the ATP Tour there are Masters tournaments but also tournaments in the 250 category. I have spent most of my tennis career at future tournaments, the last 2 years I have mainly played Challenger tournaments and This year I was also able to play a few ATP tournaments. Today an insight into the 3 categories.

Future Tour

 From the top stars of the future to seasoned professionals, you can find everything at this level. The Future Tour has a bad reputation and the players who play here are often labeled as unprofessional. I personally can only disagree with that, in my years on the Future Tour I have met countless highly motivated colleagues. Of course there are one or two supposedly unprofessional players, but you can also find them on the Challenger and even on the ATP Tour. You hardly make any money at future tournaments and you often play in holiday resorts or small towns in the middle of nowhere. The stands are mostly empty; I've even played finals here in front of just a few spectators. Anyone who can play through this without the help of wild cards will usually make it to the top of professional tennis. However, the road to the Challenger Tour is long, as very few points are awarded at the Future level.

Challenger Tour

 The Challenger Tour, officially the ATP Challenger Tour, is comparable to the 2nd Bundesliga in football. There are seasoned professionals here, young talents who will one day dominate world tennis, but also fallen legends who want to know it again. The best tournaments on the Challenger Tour are very comparable to the smaller events on the ATP Tour. The players earn money and the hospitality is provided at every tournament, the tournaments are events and also have good spectator numbers. If you look at the winners' lists of major challengers, you will find some well-known names. At this level, most professionals fall by the wayside. The jump to the ATP Tour is huge, you have to win a lot of challengers in order to score more points than the established world-class players who play for the most points at the biggest tournaments from week to week.

ATP Tours

 When we as children dream of becoming a professional tennis player, or when people talk about professional tennis in society, we always mean the ATP Tour. These are the tournaments that are broadcast on television and in which the stars and legends of tennis compete. Here, of course, you have to differentiate between the best in the world (Top 10) and the other top players (Top 100). In recent years the trend has developed that a few players have become absolute global brands (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic) but other top players are less marketed and are mostly only known nationally. The ATP Tour events take place in major cities around the world and are always absolute highlights for spectators. The ATP Tour combines world-class tennis, social events and entertainment. Accordingly, by far the most prize money is distributed here.