ATP Tour

In 1988, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the men's professional tennis players' association, used a parking lot at the U.S. Open to announce that they would assume control of the game. It was a gesture as symbolic as it was strategic. Since the players were barred from using an on-site setting at the U.S. Open, ATP chief Hamilton Jordan seized the opportunity to demonstrate how the players were on the outside looking in.

It was the defining moment in the evolution from the ATP, formed in 1972 under the leadership of superstar Jack Kramer, to the ATP Tour, the governing body of the worldwide men's professional tennis circuit. "Tennis at the Crossroads," a plan presented at the U.S. Open by Jordan and top players as Mats Wilander and Tim Mayotte, detailed the problems and conflicts confronting men's professional tennis as well as the tremendous opportunities available for promoting and marketing the game.