The ITF World Tennis Tour bounced back from the disruption caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2020 with a strong 2021 season that saw almost 8,000 players compete across 759 tournaments.  

A total of 386 men’s and 373 women’s tournaments were held on the entry-level ITF World Tennis Tour in 2021, with 54 different countries playing host to a total of 34,038 main draw matches – including 23,542 in singles and 10,496 in doubles. 

The women’s Tour was a particularly strong driver of rising talent, thanks largely to the events held at the W60-W80-W100 levels that help to deliver the best players to the WTA Tour, including 31 W60, eight W80 and six W100 tournaments. 

Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina proved the most successful competitor at the ITF World Tennis Tour’s highest level, winning four titles across the W60-W80-W100 categories, including back-to-back titles at W100 Contrexeville and W60 Montpellier.   

Kalinina, who climbed 111 spots in the WTA rankings during the year to end the season just outside the world’s Top 50, was one of a number of players to make a big leap to firmly establish herself in the Top 100 along with the likes of Clara Burel (+160), Maria Camelia Osorio Serrano (+131) and Clara Tauson (+108).  

Of the players who ended the 2021 season in the ATP and WTA Top 300, 104 had made a rankings jump of 100 places or more, aided to varying degrees by their performances on the ITF World Tennis Tour. 

Nineteen-year-old Latvian Darja Semenistaja topped the list for the most titles on the Women’s ITF World Tennis Tour with seven, while Briton Paul Jubb, Italian Franco Agamenone, Austrian Filip Misolic and Swede Nicolae Dragos Madaras all-claimed a Tour-leading five titles on the men’s side.  

Jose Fco. Vidal Azorin compiled the most match-wins on the Tour with 58, a tally that helped the 28-year-old Spaniard claim his first four ITF singles titles and enter the 2022 season at a career-high ranking of No. 445. 

The women’s ITF World Tennis Tour saw a three-way tie for most match-wins, with Finland’s Anastasia Kulikova, Hungary’s Panna Udvardy and Russian Anastasia Zolotareva all recording 51 victories. Udvardy proved a particular standout, starting the 2021 season at No. 354 in the world and ending it inside the WTA Top 100 at No. 94 after winning five ITF titles including her biggest yet at W60 Brasilia in November. Particularly proficient on clay, all 51 of Udvardy’s ITF match-wins during the year came on the dirt.          

The longest-winning streak on the ITF World Tennis Tour in 2021 was also achieved by three women, with Poland’s Weronika Falkowska, Dutchwoman Quirine Lemoine and Spaniard Nuria Parrizas-Diaz all achieving 16 straight match-wins.  

Parrizas-Diaz used the ITF World Tennis Tour as a launchpad to greater heights, winning five ITF titles, highlighted by W100 Landisville, PA, (as well as two titles at WTA level), to climb over 160 spots since the turn of the year and break into the Top 70 of the WTA rankings – a remarkable rise for a player who, five years previously, was advised by doctors to hang up her racket for good following a serious shoulder injury.  

Emerging young stars Dominic Stricker, of Switzerland, and Linda Noskova, of Czech Republic, made the biggest leaps in to the Top 300 in 2021, with the two former Roland Garros junior champions climbing a huge 922 and 770 places in the ATP and WTA rankings, respectively.  

While still just 17, Noskova made a seamless transition from the juniors, claiming her first four ITF women’s singles titles – including her biggest triumph yet at W60 Prerov – on top of her landmark Grand Slam junior triumph in Paris in June. For Stricker, his rise earned him a place in qualifying for the 2022 Australian Open.

Czech Sara Bejlek was the youngest tournament winner on the Tour in 2021, claiming the title on home soil at W60 Olomouc while aged just 15 years, five months and 25 days. Bejlek was one of three 15-year-old title winners last year, along with fellow Czech Linda Fruhvirtova (who won back-to-back titles at W15 Monastir in February) and Alexander Eala, of the Philippines, who reigned supreme at W15 Manacor a month earlier. 

Austria’s Neil Oberleitner and Kazakhstan’s Zhibek Kulambayeva were the star performers in doubles, each claiming nine team titles through the year. 

Oberleitner won nine men’s doubles titles with six different partners to rocket 254 places to a career-high No. 378 in the ATP doubles rankings by the year’s end, while Kulambayeva starts the new season 244 places higher than she began 2021 after claiming nine ITF doubles titles with seven different partners in 2021. 

Andrew Moss, Head of ITF World Tennis Tour, Strategy and Pathway, said: “2021 was a challenging year, especially for players and tournament organisers, but the ITF World Tennis Tour held up remarkably well, returning to approximately 90% of the level of tournaments by the fourth quarter in 2021, and helping to deliver talented players to the ATP and WTA level, Although the Covid-19 environment may remain a challenge well into 2022, our objective will remain developing a stronger pathway by increasing the number of tournaments at each prize money level, and with a special focus on growing the flagship W60, W80, and W100 category.” 

The new season – which is projected to encompass 1,000 tournaments - will see a fresh crop of elite juniors join those already looking to make their mark on the ITF World Tennis Tour in 2022. Find out more about how the ITF World Tennis Tour is central to the international player pathway here.