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Saturday, October 3, 2026 at 5:20 PM ET

Tennis Grand Slams and Rankings Explained: ATP, WTA and Points

A guide to tennis Grand Slams and rankings: the four majors and their surfaces, the ATP and WTA tours, how rankings points work, and withdrawals and walkovers.

Updated 2026-10-03.

In this guide
  1. The four Grand Slams
  2. The ATP and WTA tours
  3. How rankings work
  4. Withdrawals
  5. Walkovers and retirements
  6. Team events and the Olympics
  7. Related reading

Professional tennis runs almost all year, with tournaments across every continent. Four events stand above the rest, and a rolling rankings system decides who gets seeded, who gets into tournaments and who is No. 1. Here is how it all fits together.

The four Grand Slams

The Grand Slams, also called the majors, are the most important tournaments in tennis. Each is a two-week event with men’s and women’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles.

  • Australian Open. Held in Melbourne in January. Played on hard courts.
  • French Open (Roland-Garros). Held in Paris from late May into June. Played on red clay, which is slower and produces higher bounces and longer rallies.
  • Wimbledon. Held in London from late June into July. Played on grass, the fastest surface, which rewards big serves and quick points.
  • US Open. Held in New York from late August into September. Played on hard courts.

Winning all four in one calendar year is called a calendar Grand Slam, one of the rarest feats in sports.

A few features set the majors apart:

  • Bigger draws. Singles draws have 128 players, compared with much smaller fields at most tour events.
  • Best-of-five sets for men. Men’s singles matches at the majors are best of five sets. Women’s matches are best of three, as they are on tour.
  • Qualifying. Lower-ranked players compete in a qualifying tournament the week before for a spot in the main draw.
  • Wild cards. Each event awards a small number of entries to players of its choosing, often local players or stars returning from injury.

The ATP and WTA tours

Outside the majors, the sport runs on two main tours:

  • ATP Tour for men.
  • WTA Tour for women.

Each tour has tiers of events. The top tier below the Grand Slams is the ATP Masters 1000 and WTA 1000 level, followed by 500 and 250 events. The number in the name reflects how many ranking points the winner earns. Each tour ends its season with a finals event for the top-ranked players.

Below the main tours are developmental circuits, such as the Challenger Tour and ITF events, where younger and lower-ranked players build their rankings.

The Grand Slams are not run by the tours. They are organized by national tennis federations or, in Wimbledon’s case, the All England Club, but players earn ranking points at them just like at tour events.

How rankings work

Tennis rankings are based on points. Players earn points for how far they advance in each tournament, and bigger events award more. A Grand Slam title is worth the most.

The key idea is that rankings are rolling. Points generally count for 52 weeks, then drop off. That leads to a few common phrases:

  • Defending points. If a player reached a final at an event last year, those points come off this year. To keep their ranking, they need a similar result again.
  • Points dropping. A player can fall in the rankings without losing a match, simply because big results from a year ago expired.
  • Counting events. Only a set number of a player’s best results count toward the ranking, so playing more events does not automatically mean a higher ranking.

Rankings decide seedings at tournaments. Seeded players are placed in the draw so they do not meet each other in the early rounds. Rankings also decide which players get direct entry into events.

Players returning from long injuries can sometimes use a protected ranking (ATP) or special ranking (WTA) to enter tournaments based on where they were ranked before getting hurt.

Withdrawals

Tennis players are independent, so they choose their own schedules. Withdrawals are common and are a big part of tennis news.

  • Before the draw. If a player pulls out before the draw is made, the next eligible player on the entry list moves into the main draw.
  • After the draw. If a player withdraws after the draw but before his or her first match, a lucky loser, a player who lost in the final round of qualifying, often takes the spot.
  • Reasons. Injury, illness, fatigue or scheduling are the usual causes. Players often withdraw from smaller events to rest before a major.

Withdrawal news usually comes from the tournament, the tour or the player’s own social media.

Walkovers and retirements

Two terms describe matches that do not finish normally:

  • Walkover. A player withdraws before the match begins, so the opponent advances to the next round without playing.
  • Retirement. A player stops partway through a match, usually because of injury or illness. The opponent wins, and the score at the time of the retirement is recorded.

A default is different. That is when an official disqualifies a player, for example for a serious code violation.

Team events and the Olympics

Tennis also has team competitions, including the Davis Cup for men and the Billie Jean King Cup for women, organized by the International Tennis Federation. Tennis is also an Olympic sport, held every four years.

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