Introduction and History
After several attempts of creating a tennis tour on these forums, it was in 2013-14 where various nations such as Ceni/Costa de Ouro, Britonisea, Kannap, Rarungan/Pemecutan and Electrum came together to create the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). It would become a regular series of tennis tournaments where the multiverse's best tennis athletes could compete against each other at the highest level in countries around the multiverse.
Ceni would be the President of the new tennis organisation. Tiered tournaments giving different level of points were played, with the Grand Slams and the World Tour Final giving the most points. In 2015, the first edition of the International Tennis Trophy was played. In 2016, the ATP changed its name to the NationStates Tennis Tour to differentiate itself from a similarly named tennis competition in a different plane of existence. More innovations would soon follow, such as the introduction of surface swings and the use of one thread to contain the roleplays and scores of multiple tournaments.
The tour, however, went into hiatus from late 2018 to April 2020. Only two non-NSTT tennis tournaments were played until the restart of competition in April 2020, in time for the sixth annual season of the NationStates Tennis Tour with Electrum at the helm. Now, there is a streamlined competition with seventeen tournaments across three surfaces scorinated by thirteen different nations/volunteers. New innovations that have been added include a roster so that athletes play style can be described, the ability for doubles players to come from different nations and the introduction of Tier 2 tournaments.
There are five swings of tournaments, which all share the same sign-up thread and the same roleplay thread. These are:
- Outdoor hard court season
- Clay court season
- Grass court season
- Indoor hard court season
- End of season (no sign-up thread will be provided, all nations will be invited based on performance)
- Tier 2: One of these tournaments is held at the start of each swing. These tournaments are limited to athletes below 500 points, with the winner taking home 500 points. Intended for new nations and lower-ranked players. Nations are limited to sending four singles players and two doubles pairs.
- Tier 1: Open to all players, with a maximum of 1,000 points up for grabs. Nations are limited to sending four singles players and two doubles pairs.
- Grand Slam: Open to all players, with a maximum of 2,000 points up for grabs. Nations are limited to sending eight singles players and four doubles pairs
- International Tennis Trophy: Team event where each nation nominates two singles players and one doubles pair to compete in match-ups of three rubbers against other nations.
- NSTT Finals: End of year competition that is open only to the top eight singles and doubles pairs. Round-robin competition with semifinals and a final.
- NSTT Diamond Trophy: End of year competition that is open to sixteen additional singles and doubles pairs. Each nation will send at least one entrant to both disciplines, provided they have participated a reasonable amount throughout the year and do not have entrants in the NSTT Finals in the corresponding discipline.
Current rankings and schedule