The Tennis Time

Tournaments Season 2026

ATP Masters 1000 and WTA 1000 Tournaments: A Guide to the Tour Calendar

Below the four Grand Slams sit the events that shape a tennis season: nine ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, ten WTA 1000s and a deep layer of 500s. This guide explains how the tiers work, which events belong to each, and where to find the prize money for every one.

ATP Masters 1000
9events in 2026, 7 of them over 12 days
WTA 1000
10events in 2026
Champion's points
1,000half a Grand Slam title
AI-generated image: aerial view of a tennis center with a large stadium and rows of outside courtsAI-generated image

The tier ladder

How the tour is built: Grand Slams, 1000, 500, 250

Short answerTournaments are ranked by the points their singles champion earns: 2,000 at a Grand Slam, 1,000 at an ATP Masters 1000 or WTA 1000, then 500 and 250. Prize money and draw size fall with each step down.

Tennis does not have a league table. It has a ladder of tournaments, and the number in each tier's name tells you what winning one is worth in ranking points. Open a tier to see which events sit on it this season.

AI-generated image: panorama of tournament stadiums from a hill: hard, clay, grass and indoor roofAI-generated image
  1. 2000Grand Slams4 events, both tours

    Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open. Two weeks, 128-player singles draws, best of five sets for the men.

  2. 1000ATP Masters 1000 and WTA 10009 ATP, 10 WTA

    ATP: Indian Wells Open, Miami Open, Monte-Carlo Masters, Madrid Open, Italian Open, Canadian Open, Cincinnati Open, Shanghai Masters and Paris Masters. WTA: Qatar Open, Dubai Tennis Championships, Indian Wells Open, Miami Open, Madrid Open, Italian Open, Canadian Open, Cincinnati Open, China Open and Wuhan Open.

  3. 500ATP 500 and WTA 50016 ATP, 17 WTA

    ATP: Dallas Open, Rotterdam Open, Qatar Open, Rio Open, Dubai Tennis Championships, Mexican Open, BMW Open, Barcelona Open, Hamburg Open, Halle Open, Queen's Club Championships, Washington Open, China Open, Japan Open, Swiss Indoors and Vienna Open. WTA: Brisbane International, Adelaide International, Abu Dhabi Open, Mérida Open, Charleston Open, Linz Open, Stuttgart Open, Internationaux de Strasbourg, Queen's Club Championships, Berlin Tennis Open, Bad Homburg Open, Washington Open, Monterrey Open, Guadalajara Open, Singapore Tennis Open, Ningbo Open and Pan Pacific Open.

  4. 250ATP 250 and WTA 25029 ATP, 20 WTA

    The widest layer of the tour: draws of 28 to 32 players, one week, and most first titles on both tours.

The ladder decides more than prestige. Both tours rank players on a rolling 52-week window, so a Masters 1000 title is worth as much as two 500 titles, or four 250s, to the ranking. That arithmetic is why the top players build their seasons around the Grand Slams and the 1000s and fit the smaller events into the gaps, while players ranked 50th to 100th live on the 250s and 500s, where a single good week can change their year.

The money follows the same steps. The 2026 champion's cheque at the Cincinnati Open, a Masters 1000, was $1,151,380; the men's champion at the Washington ATP 500 a few weeks earlier received $461,835. For the full comparison across every event, see our tennis prize money ledger.

ATP Masters 1000

The nine ATP Masters 1000 tournaments

Short answerThe ATP Masters 1000 tournaments in 2026 are Indian Wells Open, Miami Open, Monte-Carlo Masters, Madrid Open, Italian Open, Canadian Open, Cincinnati Open, Shanghai Masters and Paris Masters. Seven run for about twelve days with 96-player draws; Monte-Carlo and Paris keep the one-week format.

  1. Mar Indian Wells Hard 12 days
  2. Mar Miami Hard 13 days
  3. Apr Monte-Carlo Clay 8 days
  4. Apr Madrid Clay 13 days
  5. May Rome Clay 13 days
  6. Aug Montreal Hard 11 days
  7. Aug Cincinnati Hard 11 days
  8. Oct Shanghai Hard 12 days
  9. Nov Paris Indoor hard 7 days

Read the strip from left to right and you get the shape of the men's season. Two in California and Florida in March, the so-called Sunshine Double. Three on European clay in spring, Monte-Carlo, Madrid and Rome, leading into Roland Garros. Two on North American hard courts in August before the US Open. Shanghai in October, and Paris indoors to close the regular season in November.

Eight of the nine are mandatory for players whose ranking gets them into the draw. Skip one without an accepted reason and the missing result counts as zero in the ranking. Monte-Carlo is the exception. It is a Masters 1000 in points and prize money but counts among a player's best "other" results, which is why a few top players miss it every spring without penalty.

The biggest change of recent years is length. The ATP's 2026 calendar lists seven of the nine as twelve-day events, with 96-player draws in which the 32 seeds receive a first-round bye. The extra round brought more prize money and more main-draw places, and it squeezed the calendar, so the Canadian event and Cincinnati now overlap by a day in August, and players who go deep in one arrive at the next almost without rest.

WTA 1000

The WTA 1000 tournaments

Short answerThe WTA has 10 events at the 1000 level in 2026: Qatar Open, Dubai Tennis Championships, Indian Wells Open, Miami Open, Madrid Open, Italian Open, Canadian Open, Cincinnati Open, China Open and Wuhan Open. Five share a site and dates with an ATP Masters 1000, and the Canadian event runs in the same fortnight in the other city.

The women's top tier mirrors the men's in points, a 1,000-point title, but not in its map. The WTA 1000 season opens in the Gulf, with Doha and Dubai in February, then joins the men at Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Rome. The Canadian event and Cincinnati follow in August, and the WTA finishes its 1000 swing in China, with the China Open in Beijing and Wuhan in October, where the men play Shanghai instead. The season ends with the WTA Finals, an eight-player event outside the 1000 ladder that paid the biggest purse in women's tennis in 2025.

Commitment rules are strict. The WTA rulebook requires players accepted into a WTA 1000 main draw to play it; a missed event counts as a zero in the ranking. Younger players have limits. Under-17s are exempt, and 17-year-olds may play only a set number.

Prize money is converging. In 2023 the WTA announced a pathway to equal pay, with equal prize money at the 1000 and 500 events played together with the men by 2027, and at single-week events by 2033. The WTA rulebook already requires Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing to pay the women the same total as the men's event.

AI-generated image: row of practice courts at sunset, a wire basket of balls on the nearest oneAI-generated image
Practice courts at a combined event, where both tours share the grounds for the week.

The 500 level

ATP 500 and WTA 500 tournaments

Short answerThe ATP has 16 ATP 500 events in 2026, and the WTA a similar layer of 500s. The champion earns 500 points, and many of these weeks sit right before a bigger event on the same surface.

The ATP 500 tournaments in 2026 are Dallas Open, Rotterdam Open, Qatar Open, Rio Open, Dubai Tennis Championships, Mexican Open, BMW Open, Barcelona Open, Hamburg Open, Halle Open, Queen's Club Championships, Washington Open, China Open, Japan Open, Swiss Indoors and Vienna Open. They are optional for top players, but the ranking counts a player's best results outside the Slams and the mandatory 1000s, so most top-20 players play several of them. Some, like Washington, are combined with a WTA 500 and pay both draws in the same week.

Washington is a good example of how the 500s work. The men's champion there in 2026 received $461,835 and 500 points, a week's work that sets up the summer before Canada and Cincinnati. The WTA 500 list is longer and more spread out, from Brisbane and Abu Dhabi early in the year to Tokyo and Ningbo in the autumn. Two other 500s are worth a look on grass and indoors: the Queen's Club Championships in London before Wimbledon, and in the last weeks of the men's season the Swiss Indoors in Basel and the Vienna Open. Doha and Dubai each pair a women's 1000 with a men's 500 in February.

Below the 500s, the 250s are the widest layer of both tours, with draws of 28 to 32 players and one week of play. They are where first titles are won, and where a player coming back from injury looks for matches. The Stockholm Open, an ATP 250 played indoors in November, is a good example.

Event guides

Our tournament guides

Short answerEach guide covers the dates, the venue, the prize money per round, the purse by year, the champions and how to watch. The tennis calendar links them all by week.

ATP Masters 10007

ATP Masters 1000 events with a guide on this site.

More WTA 1000 events3

WTA 1000 events that have no ATP Masters 1000 of their own.

The 500 level4

Events where the champion earns 500 points.

250s and the season finale3

Smaller events and the WTA Finals.

Season data2

Every event on one page.

FAQ

ATP Masters 1000 and WTA 1000: questions and answers

Short answerThe questions fans ask most about the tour tiers, answered from the 2026 calendar.

What tournaments are in the ATP Masters 1000?

In 2026: Indian Wells Open, Miami Open, Monte-Carlo Masters, Madrid Open, Italian Open, Canadian Open, Cincinnati Open, Shanghai Masters and Paris Masters. That is nine events, from Indian Wells in March to Paris in November.

What is the difference between ATP 500 and 1000?

A Masters 1000 champion earns 1,000 ranking points, an ATP 500 champion 500. The 1000s have bigger draws, much bigger purses, and eight of the nine are mandatory for players with the ranking to enter. ATP 500 events are optional, though top players need some of them to fill their ranking.

How many ATP Masters 1000 tournaments are there?

Nine. Seven of them, all except Monte-Carlo and Paris, now run over about twelve days with 96-player singles draws.

Which tournaments are WTA 1000?

In 2026: Qatar Open, Dubai Tennis Championships, Indian Wells Open, Miami Open, Madrid Open, Italian Open, Canadian Open, Cincinnati Open, China Open and Wuhan Open. Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome and Cincinnati are played alongside the ATP Masters 1000s at the same site, and the Canadian event in the same fortnight.

Are Masters 1000 events mandatory?

Eight of the nine are. A player who qualifies for them and skips one without an accepted reason gets a zero that counts toward his ranking. Monte-Carlo is the exception, counted among a player's best other results.

How many points do you get for winning a Masters 1000?

1,000. A Grand Slam title is worth 2,000, an ATP 500 or WTA 500 title 500, and a 250 title 250.

How many ATP 500 tournaments are there in 2026?

The ATP lists 16 ATP 500 events in 2026, from Rotterdam and Dallas in February to Basel and Vienna in late October.

When is the next Masters 1000 tournament?

The tennis calendar on this site marks every 1000-level event of the season with its dates; the last ATP Masters 1000 of 2026 is the Paris Masters in November.

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