One of the nice things about betting on tennis is the nearly year-round availability of events worth following. If you were to follow the ATP season alone, you would have eleven months’ worth of tennis viewing and hundreds of potential betting opportunities – and that is not counting a myriad of other tennis events that also run throughout the year for both men and women.
Some players have expressed their displeasure with the length of the pro tennis season, but we as bettors have the advantage of watching and betting from anywhere. We have so many options; in fact, tennis bettors must take care not to indulge too much.
One important aspect of successful tennis betting is picking your spots and letting value come to you rather than betting just because a tournament is taking place. With the variety of major tennis events on offer each year, remember there will always be another chance to bet on an upcoming Tennis tournament.
There is no shortage of major tennis tournaments to bet on throughout the year. Here’s a look at the biggest and best tournaments worth considering when looking for a wager.
Tennis Grand Slam Betting
The Grand Slams hardly need an introduction as they stand tall among all tennis events. Each year’s four Grand Slams are the pinnacle of tennis and are the tournaments that players dream of winning as youngsters. These are the tournaments that even non-tennis fans eventually know somewhat due to such widespread media coverage.
Winning just one of these Tennis majors is the achievement of a lifetime, and the players who win multiple Grand Slam events inevitably end up in the history books. Naturally, Tennis betting action picks up considerably during the lead-up to any Grand Slam. This is the time when you’re most likely to find tennis betting promotions as sports betting apps of the world compete for your business during the busy times of the year.
Australian Open Betting
- Where: Melbourne
- When: Late January
Grand Slam season begins with the Australian Open every year over the last two weeks of January in Melbourne. In this tournament, we see the elite of tennis compete in men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles.
Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, and Rafael Nadal have been dominant forces at the Australian Open since 2004. One or the other almost always took the trophy or at least made a finals appearance. The women’s side has been more open in recent years, but the Williams sisters and Maria Sharapova have all been frequent contenders dating back to 2005.
French Open Betting
- Where: Paris
- When: Late May – Early June
The second Grand Slam of the season moves things north to Paris, France, for the French Open. As it is also known, Roland-Garros runs every year over a two-week stretch between the end of May and the beginning of June on clay courts.
Roland-Garros favors clay players for obvious reasons and has been utterly dominated by Rafael Nadal in recent years. Going back to 2005, Rafael Nadal has won this tournament 10 times. However, Nadal is not getting any younger, and soon we will be looking for the next generation of clay players to take up the considerable feat of filling Nadal’s shoes. Novak Djokovic has also made his mark on this tournament in recent years with multiple finals appearances and a win in 2016.
Wimbledon Betting
- Where: London
- When: Late June / Early July
While the French Open is characterized by its energetic yet laid-back atmosphere with players who emerge from battle dirty and dusty, Wimbledon is steeped in tradition with all players donning white, crowds that are intent but respectful, and strawberries and cream served up by the batch.
Wimbledon is the most prestigious Grand Slam of them all and is played every year in late June or early July on grass courts that reward a strong serve-and-volley game. Roger Federer has dominated at Wimbledon since 2003, while other tennis greats such as Pete Sampras and John McEnroe dominated during their respective heydays.
US Open Betting
- Where: New York City
- When: Late August – Early September
The US Open wraps things up for the Grand Slams each year in New York City, with the tournament running from late August through early September. This is the biggest tennis event in the United States and one of the oldest in the world and remains a huge draw to this day. Each year, upwards of 700,000 fans visit the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center to watch the best play in the final Grand Slam of the year.
Roger Federer had a dominant run here, winning five straight US Opens from 2004 through 2008, but the tournament has been much more open in the years since. In more recent years, we have seen victories from the likes of Juan Martin del Potro, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Marin Cilic, and Stan Wawrinka.
The women’s side has likewise opened itself up to the competition in recent years with wins from Flavia Pennetta, Angelique Kerber, and Sloane Stephens. If we look back a bit further, the Williams sisters pop up more often than not as US Open champions.
Olympics Tennis Betting
- Where: Varies
- When: Every four years
The ITF manages the Summer Olympics tennis tournament on behalf of the International Olympic Committee every four years. This tournament can be fairly ranked on the same level as the four Grand Slams in terms of prestige and what it means for a player to win.
The four-year stretch between Olympic tennis tournaments makes this one of the most elusive titles for players. For instance, winning a gold medal in the Olympics and all four Grand Slams in a single calendar year is called a Golden Slam. Steffi Graf is the only player, male or female, to achieve a Golden Slam (1988).
The Olympic tennis tournament consists of men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s singles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles competitions.
Hopman Cup Betting
- Where: Perth, Australia
- When: Begins late December or early January
The Hopman Cup is an international team tennis tournament that occupies the middle ground between the Davis Cup and Fed Cup. While the Davis Cup and Fed Cup are for men and women only, the Hopman Cup involves two-person teams consisting of one man and one woman representing their nation in the competition.
Eight teams representing their respective countries play in the competition each year in Perth, Australia. Each contest between countries consists of one men’s singles match, one women’s singles match, and one mixed doubles match.
The Hopman Cup is more of a lighthearted affair than anything too serious. It’s not uncommon to see the players with one another, even during live matches. In this way, the Hopman Cup serves as a fun introduction to Australian tennis ahead of the much more serious Australian Open each year.
Next Gen ATP Finals Betting
- Where: Milan, Italy
- When: Early November
The Next Gen ATP Finals was introduced to the world in 2017 as a new tournament format designed to showcase young, up-and-coming players. The tournament is open to tennis players 21-and-under who compete for a share of the tournament’s seven-figure prize pool.
The Next Gen ATP Finals also incorporates a unique set of rules aimed at making professional tennis faster-paced, more TV-friendly, and more appealing to younger fans of the sport. Among those rules include:
- Shorter format with first to four-game sets, best-of-five sets, and no-ad scoring
- Shorter warmups that give players 5 minutes from walk-on before the match begins
- Strictly enforced shot clock for set breaks, medical time-outs, warmups, and enforcement of the 25-second rule.
- No-let rule applies to serves, allowing play to continue if the ball brushes the next and continues into the service box
- 1 medical time out allowed per player per match
- Player coaching allowed at certain times for additional entertainment value for viewers
Major ATP World Tour Events
The Association of Tennis Professionals oversees most other major men’s tournament events outside the four Grand Slams. Each year, the ATP oversees nearly 250 tennis tournaments spread across multiple levels of play. The ATP does not govern the Grand Slam events but awards 2,000 ranking points to winners to make the Grand Slam events the most important tournaments for ATP rankings.
ATP World Tour Finals
- Where: London
- When: Mid-November
The ATP Finals is the next-highest tier of professional men’s tennis behind only the Grand Slams in terms of prestige and ranking importance. The ATP Finals is held each year at the O2 Arena in London in mid-November, with up to 1,500 ATP Rankings points up for grabs for the winner.
After all four Grand Slam events are finished, the ATP Finals wrap up the men’s professional tennis season with one last title on the line. The ATP Finals is open only to the top eight singles players and eight doubles teams of the season and is played in a round-robin format.
Each player begins the tournament able to win as many as 1,500 ranking points, but each loss during the tournament results in 200 points being deducted. Under this format, the winner stands to win 1,500 ranking points by advancing through every stage undefeated.
Masters 1000 Events
One step down from the Grand Slams and ATP Finals are nine Masters 1000 events. Tournaments at this level still award a substantial 1,0000 points and tend to draw all the top talent in professional tennis.
Here’s a look at the 9 Masters 1000 tournaments each year:
Tournament | When It’s Played | Location |
Indian Wells Masters | Early March | Indian Wells, CA |
Miami Open | Late March – Early April | Key Biscayne, FL |
Monte-Carlo Masters | Mid-April | Roquebrune Cap Martin, France |
Madrid Open | Early May | Madrid, Spain |
Italian Open | Mid May | Rome, Italy |
Canadian Open | Early August | Montreal, Canada |
Cincinnati Masters | Mid-August | Cincinnati, OH |
Shanghai Masters | Early October | Shanghai, China |
Paris Masters | Late October – Early November | Paris, France |
ATP World Tour 500 Events
The 13 ATP World Tour 500 events are one step down from the Masters 1000 events but still award a significant 500 points. Top-30 players are a minimum of four 500-series events each year, with at least one of those happening after the US Open. Players who come up short are awarded a 0-pointer for each tournament missed below four, but there are no fines for missing.
Here are the 13 ATP 500 events to watch for each year:
Tournament | When It’s Played | Location |
Rotterdam Open | Early February | Rotterdam, Netherlands |
Rio Open | Mid-February | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
Dubai Tennis Championships | Late February – Early March | Dubai, UAE |
Mexican Open | Late February – Early March | Acapulco, Mexico |
Barcelona Open | Late April | Barcelona, Spain |
Halle Open | Mid-June | Halle, Germany |
Queen’s Club Championships | Mid-June | London, Great Britain |
German Tennis Championships | Late July | Hamburg, Germany |
Washington Open | Late July –Early August | Washington, DC, USA |
China Open | Early October | Beijing, China |
Japan Open | Early October | Tokyo, Japan |
Vienna Open | Late October | Vienna, Austria |
Swiss Indoors Basel | Late October | Basel, Switzerland |
ATP World Tour 250 Series
And one more step down, we have the ATP 250 series. These tournaments are undoubtedly smaller than the more prestigious ATP events we have discussed so far. Still, very active tennis punters will eventually need to dip into 250-level events as there are many more of these than Grand Slams, 1000s, and 500s.
Betting on ATP 250 series events brings the additional advantage of markets that aren’t as sharp. When everyone in the world is betting on big events like the Grand Slams, the lines tend to become very sharp thanks to market forces pushing the betting lines closer and closer to optimal. This, in turn, makes it more difficult to find mispriced matches and value plays.
ATP 250 series events do not suffer that same problem because they are not nearly as popular among the betting public. The oddsmakers at your favorite tennis betting apps are busy people and can only spend so much time setting the odds for minor tennis events that do not generate as much betting handle. If you are very tuned in to tennis, the minor events are prime targets for finding value.
There are currently 40 events on the World Tour 250 series schedule each year. Here is a brief overview of all 40 tournaments:
Tournament | When It’s Played | Location |
Brisbane International | Late December – Early January | Brisbane, Australia |
Qatar Open | Early January | Doha, Qatar |
Maharashtra Open | Early January | Pune, India |
Sydney International | Early January | Sydney, Australia |
Auckland International | Early January | Auckland, New Zealand |
Sofia Open | Early February | Sofia, Bulgaria |
Ecuador Open | Early February | Quito, Ecuador |
Open Sud de France | Early February | Montpellier, France |
New York Open | Mid-February | Long Island, New York, USA |
Argentina Open | Mid-February | Buenos Aires, Argentina |
Open 13 Marseille | Mid-February | Marseille, France |
Delray Beach Open | Mid-February | Delray Beach, USA |
Brasil Open | Late February – Early March | Sao Paolo, Brazil |
US Men’s Clay Court Championship | Early April | Houston, USA |
Grand Prix Hassan II | Early April | Marrakech, Morocco |
Hungarian Open | Late April | Budapest, Hungary |
BMW Open | Late April – Early May | Munich, Germany |
Estoril Open | Late April – Early May | Estoril, Portugal |
Istanbul Open | Late April – Early May | Istanbul, Turkey |
Geneva Open | Late May | Geneva, Switzerland |
Lyon Open | Late May | Lyon, France |
BOSS Open | Mid-June | Stuttgart, Germany |
Ricoh Open | Mid-June | s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands |
Antalya Open | Late June | Antalya, Turkey |
International Eastbourne | Late June | Eastbourne, Great Britain |
Hall of Fame Open | Mid-July | Newport, USA |
Croatia Open | Mid-July | Umag, Croatia |
Swedish Open | Mid-July | Bastad, Sweden |
Atlanta Open | Late July | Atlanta, USA |
Swiss Open | Late July | Gstaad, Switzerland |
Los Cabos Open | Late July – Early August | Los Cabos, Mexico |
Austrian Open | Late July – Early August | Kitzbuhel, Austria |
Winston-Salem Open | Mid-August | Winston-Salem, USA |
St. Petersburg Open | Mid-September | St. Petersburg, Russia |
Moselle Open | Mid-September | Metz, France |
Chengdu Open | Late September | Chengdu, China |
Shenzhen Open | Late September | Shenzhen, China |
Kremlin Cup | Mid-October | Moscow, Russia |
European Open | Mid-October | Antwerp, Belgium |
Stockholm Open | Mid-October | Stockholmd, Sweden |
ATP Challenger Tour
The ATP Challenger Tour is the next level of competition down from the ATP World Tour. This level of tennis is still considered professional, with tournaments that award decent sums of money, and is where you might spot tomorrow’s tennis greats working their way up the ladder.
ATP Challenger Tour players tend to be young and still growing in their career, as well as older players who have dropped down from a higher level of competition looking to get back into the swing of things. Players who perform well in Challenger series events can earn their way up into World Tour events.
The ATP Challenger Tour consists of 150+ events hosted throughout the year from January through November. The official schedule of upcoming events can be .
ITF Mens Circuit
The International Tennis Federation oversees tennis at the international level with a wide range of duties, including protecting the sport from corruption and performance-enhancing drugs, governing the Grand Slams, governing the Olympic tournament, and running the lowest level of professional tennis for men and women.
The ITF Men’s Circuit serves as the lowest rung of professional men’s tennis beneath the ATP World Tour and ATP Challenger Tour. More than 600 ITF “Futures” tournaments are hosted worldwide with prize pools of either $15,000 or $25,000 and ranking points that can advance players up to the higher-profile ATP tours.
Futures tend to be the lowest level of tennis easily found at major bookmakers. These tournaments are exceedingly difficult for oddsmakers to price accurately and have in the past been a due to their lowly standing among professional tennis tournaments. There is certainly money to be made betting on ITF Futures, but finding reliable sources of information can be difficult.
Davis Cup
- Where: Various venues around the world
- When: Multiple weekends spread across the year
The Davis Cup is an ITF-run tournament that pits teams from many countries against one another to determine the World Champion each year. This is the biggest team event in men’s professional tennis and sees upwards of 130 nations enter teams. For these reasons, the Davis Cup is also referred to as the “World Cup of Tennis.”
Sixteen teams ultimately qualify for the World Group stage, which receives the bulk of the attention from the media as it consists of the best 16 teams in the world. Historically, the United States and Australia have won the most Davis Cup championships, with 32 for the US and 28 for Australia. France and Great Britain have also been strong contenders of the years with 10 victories for each.
The bulk of Davis Cup betting revolves around the World Group matches, but there are many more matches outside the elite group to bet on if you keep your eyes open. In all stages of play, the key is to focus on specific players, understand who is on each team and be on the lookout for injuries due to the quarterfinals and semifinals taking place much later in the year. Last year’s Davis Cup saw multiple injuries to key players in the semifinals alone.
Major WTA Events
And now we turn to professional women’s tennis and the Women’s Tennis Association. The WTA is the women’s counterpart to the ATP, and it too runs several circuits for professional players ranked just below the Grand Slams and the WTA Finals.
WTA ranking points are earned by competing in tournaments, with the biggest tournaments of the season worth the most points (and most money). Here’s how the major events in women’s tennis stack up in terms of ranking points earned by winning:
- Grand Slams: 2,000 points
- WTA Finals: 1,500 points
- WTA Elite Trophy: 700 points
- Premier Mandatory events: 1,000 points
- Premier 5 events: 900 points
- Premier events: 470 points
WTA Finals
- Where: Varies
- When: Late October
The WTA Finals ranks just below the four Grand Slams as the most prestigious tournament in professional women’s tennis. This tournament is held every year after the WTA season and is only open to the top 8 singles players and top 8 doubles teams.
An indoor hard court serves as the venue for play, and $7 million in prize money is on the line for those invited to compete. Players qualify for the WTA Finals by earning ranking points across 53 WTA tournaments held throughout the year and participation in the four Grand Slam events.
Martina Navratilova holds the record for most WTA Finals victories at eight. She is followed by Serena Williams and Steffi Graf, who has won five apiece. Winning at the WTA Finals is a career-defining achievement ranked second only to winning a Grand Slam or taking home an Olympic gold medal.
WTA Elite Trophy
- Where: Zhuhai, China
- When: Late October
The WTA Elite Trophy is the year-end championship for players who did well on the WTA circuit but did not qualify for the WTA Finals. This tournament has been run every year since 2015 and currently takes place in Zhuhai, China, with nearly $3 million in prize money on the line.
While the WTA Finals are open to the top-8 ranked players, the WTA Elite Trophy is contested by the players ranked 9-19th in addition to one wildcard. The singles champion earns a respectable 700 ranking points.
WTA Premier Tournaments
The 21 WTA Premier tournaments serve as the third-highest level of professional women’s tennis behind only the Grand Slams and WTA Finals. Within this category are three sub-categories that further define the importance of events.
First up are the four Premier Mandatory events that, as individual tournaments, are one step below the Grand Slams and WTA Finals. These tournaments award 1,000 points, and all have prize money in excess of $5 million.
Tournament | When It’s Played | Location |
Indian Wells | Early March | Indian Wells, USA |
Miami Open | Late March | Miami, USA |
Madrid Open | Early May | Madrid, Spain |
China Open | Late September – Early October | Beijing, China |
Below are the five Premier 5 events. These are also substantial tournaments with 900 points up for grabs and more than $2 million in prize money on offer.
Tournament | When It’s Played | Location |
Qatar Total Open | Mid-February | Doha, Qatar |
Italian Open | Mid-May | Rome, Italy |
Rogers Cup | Early August | Montreal, Canada |
Cincinnati Open | Mid-August | Cincinnati, USA |
Wuhan Open | Late September | Wuhan, China |
One level down is the twelve Premier tournaments. These can award a player up to 470 points and generally have prize money in the range of $700,000 to $800,000.
Tournament | When It’s Played | Location |
Brisbane International | Late December – Early January | Brisbane, Australia |
Sydney International | Early January | Sydney, Australia |
St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy | Late January – Early February | St. Petersburg, Russia |
Dubai Tennis Championships | Mid-February | Dubai, UAE |
Charleston Open | Early April | Charleston, USA |
Stuttgart Open | Late April | Stuttgart, Germany |
The Classic Birmingham | Mid-June | Birmingham, Great Britain |
The International Eastbourne | Late June | Eastbourne, Great Britain |
Bay Area Classic | Late July – Early August | Stanford, USA |
Connecticut Open | Late August | New Haven, USA |
Toray Pan Pacific Open | Mid-September | Tokyo, Japan |
VTB Kremlin Cup | Mid-October | Moscow, Russia |
WTA International Tournaments
WTA International Tournaments rank one level below the various Premier tournaments with up to 280 ranking points up for grabs. These tournaments have fixed prize money of $226,750 except for three tournaments with larger prizes:
- Shenzhen Open: $626,750
- Moscow River Cup: $626,750
- Tianjin Open: $626,750
Here is the full list of International tournaments hosted around the world:
Tournament | When It’s Played | Location |
Shenzhen Open | Late December – Early January | Shenzhen, China |
Auckland Open | Early January | Auckland, New Zealand |
Hobart International | Early January | Hobart, Australia |
Taiwan Open | Late January – Early February | Taipei City, Taiwan |
Hungarian Ladies Open | Mid-February | Hungary, Budapest |
Mexico Open | Late February – Early March | Acapulco, Mexico |
Monterrey Open | Early April | Monterrey, Mexico |
Ladies Open Lugano | Early April | Lugano, Switzerland |
WTA Bogota | Early April | Bogota, Colombia |
Istanbul Cup | Late April | Istanbul, Turkey |
Rabat Grand Prix | Late April – Early May | Rabat, Morocco |
Prague Open | Late April – Early May | Prague, Czech Republic |
Nuremberg Cup | Late May | Nuremberg, Germany |
Internationaux de Strasbourg | Late May | Strasbourg, France |
The Open Nottingham | Mid-June | Nottingham, Great Britain |
Ricoh Open | Mid-June | s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands |
Mallorca Open | Mid-June | Mallorca, Spain |
Bucharest Open | Mid-July | Bucharest, Romania |
Ladies Championship Gstaad | Mid-July | Gstaad, Switzerland |
Jiangxi Open | Late July | Nanchang, China |
Moscow River Cup | Late July | Moscow, Russia |
Washington Open | Late July – Early August | Washington, D.C., USA |
Coupe Banque Nationale | Early September | Quebec City, Canada |
Japan Women’s Open | Early September | Hiroshima, Japan |
Korea Open | Mid-September | Seoul, South Korea |
Guangzhou Open | Mid-September | Guangzhou, China |
Tashkent Open | Late September | Tashkent, Uzbekistan |
Tianjin Open | Early October | Tianjin, China |
Hong Kong Open | Early October | Hong Kong, SAR |
Upper Austria Ladies Linz | Early October | Linz, Austria |
Luxembourg Open | Mid-October | Luxembourg |
WTA 125K Series
The WTA 125K Series is the next level of professional women’s tennis, one level down from the WTA Tour. The WTA launched the 125K Series in 2012 with two goals in mind: to promote women’s tennis in underserved markets and to give up-and-coming players a place to compete and work their way up into WTA Tour events.
125K Series tournaments award 160 ranking points to the winner and feature prize pools ranging from $115,000 to $140,000.
ITF Womens Circuit
The International Tennis Federation runs the ITF Women’s Circuit and serves as the entry-level stage for professional play. Hundreds of ITF tournaments are hosted each year around the world with five established prize levels:
- $15,000
- $25,000
- $60,000
- $80,000
- $100,000
Women early in their careers and those who have been spit back out from higher levels of play can play ITF Women’s Circuit events to work their way up into WTA-level events. You can see at the ITF website for a current calendar of women’s ITF events.
These tournaments are very small on the world stage, and, much like men’s ITF Futures, information can be difficult to find. Tennis bookmakers often restrict ITF women’s tournaments to lower betting limits due to the difficulty in pricing players and these tournaments not being nearly as secure as major WTA events.
This does make women’s ITF events more difficult to handicap, but it also means there is value to be found. The oddsmakers are obviously not as confident in their ability to price these minor tournaments. Hence, it is possible to find profitable spots if you have a reliable source of information regarding an upcoming ITF tournament.
Fed Cup
- Where: Various venues around the world
- When: Multiple weekends spread across the year
The Fed Cup is the WTA’s answer to the Davis Cup and is also known as the World Cup of Tennis. This is the highest level of women’s teams play globally and is contested by teams of players representing their home countries.
Like the Davis Cup, the Fed Cup allows many nations to enter before narrowing down the competition to a handful of elite nations. The eight best nations remaining after the first stages compete in the World Group stage, and that is where the tournament begins to make waves in the media, and people really begin tuning in.
The World Group stage is played over three separate weekends across the year. Typically, the first round with eight nations still in the hunt is played in February. The four remaining teams contest the semifinals in April, and then the championship-crowning final is played between the two remaining teams in November.