How the ATP Tour works: tiers, points, rankings and the Finals
What is the ATP Tour? The tournament tiers from Masters 1000 to Challengers, how ATP rankings and the Race to Turin work, and where the Davis Cup fits in.

Founder of FifthSet
Nicolai Schmid is the founder of FifthSet. He played tennis as a child and returned to the court in summer 2026. With two brothers who are tennis coaches and a grandfather who founded a tennis club, the sport has always been part of his family. FifthSet grew from his curiosity about the matches, players, and stories that make tennis worth following throughout the year.
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What is the ATP Tour? The tournament tiers from Masters 1000 to Challengers, how ATP rankings and the Race to Turin work, and where the Davis Cup fits in.
How does tennis scoring work? Love, 15, 30, 40, deuce and advantage, then games, sets and tiebreaks, how many sets a match has and how long it takes.
Australian Open prize money 2026: a record A$111.5 million pool, A$4.15 million for each singles champion. Every round, qualifying and doubles.
ATP Finals prize money: $15.5 million in total, $5,071,000 for an undefeated champion in 2025. How the fee, match bonuses and 1,500 points add up.
The top seed beat Luciano Darderi 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (3) on Monday and, for the first time this tournament, finished before midnight. Next is Botic van de Zandschulp, who saved a match point in a five-hour win and has beaten Alcaraz in New York before.
A top seed joked about going to a bar because he had finished before midnight. Five of the first seven night sessions on Arthur Ashe Stadium ended after 1 a.m. The tournament has known the fix for years and keeps choosing discretion over a rule.
The defending champion beat Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday night. He had not played a singles match since a wrist injury in Barcelona in April. Ben Shelton is next, on Tuesday.
Novak Djokovic's first-round loss to Mariano Navone ends more than his US Open. When the rankings update on 14 September, a streak that began in October 2002 ends with it.