As the dust settles on another grass-court season, we can take stock of a remarkable few weeks of tennis highlighted by another historic Wimbledon fortnight.

Throughout this season, I have frequently described this as one of the most exciting times in the history of our sport, with a combination of established stars and the next generation knocking at the door to the top echelons of the game.

Wimbledon provided the perfect example of this, with some of our brightest prospects in Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic both reaching the semi-finals, where only the talent, experience and resilience of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer were able to prevent them from reaching the final.

The five-set final that ensued between Djokovic and Federer will be remembered for years to come, with the Serb fully deserving of his seventh career Grand Slam title as well as his return to No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

Dimitrov’s results over the past few weeks, including his fourth career title at title at the Aegon Championships at Queen’s Club, mean he has become the first Bulgarian in history to break into the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings. Reaching the Top 10 is a phenomenal achievement, only attained by 157 players since the rankings began in 1973.

We cannot look back at this year’s Wimbledon without mentioning 19-year-old Australian Nick Kyrgios, who stunned Rafael Nadal in the fourth round to reach the quarter-finals. It has been a while seen a teenager has been able to break through in on a big stage like that, and the young Australian certainly captured the imagination of fans worldwide with the manner of his performances. I’m sure we will be hearing plenty more from him in the near future.

And from one Australian, to another — I would also like to recognise Lleyton Hewitt who claimed the singles and doubles titles at the same event for the first time last week at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport. It was Hewitt’s 30th career singles title, putting the 33-year-old in elite company as he becomes the fourth active player with 30-or-more singles titles, joining Federer (79), Nadal (64) and Djokovic (45). Lleyton has had a remarkable career and his longevity speaks for itself.

With the grass-court season behind us, we can now look ahead to the next swing on the ATP World Tour, with the Emirates Airline US Open Series set to take place across Atlanta, Washington D.C., Toronto, Cincinnati & Winston-Salem before culminating at the US Open in New York.

It should be a fascinating series of events in which the world’s best go head to head in a bid to capture some of the most prestigious titles on the Tour, as well as battling for coveted Emirates ATP Rankings points in a bid to qualify among the top-eight players for the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London. With Djokovic and Nadal both booking their spots following their results at Wimbledon, only six singles spots remain up for grabs at The O2 in London.

In doubles, Bob and Mike Bryan have become the first to book their place at the season finale. The American duo currently hold a record-breaking 98 career titles to their name and will have high hopes of reaching the 100 mark on home soil during the summer hard-court season.

Away from the on-court action, an important development has taken place in recent weeks relating to a new event that will join the ATP World Tour calendar from 2015.

I am pleased to say that the ATP Board of Directors recently approved an application for a new event to be held in Istanbul, Turkey, on clay in the spring. The event will be held at the spectacular Koza World of Sports facility, which is promoted as the largest tennis academy in the world. The centre court features a retractable roof and will provide seating for 7,500 people. We are delighted that the ATP World Tour will be going to Turkey for the first time from 2015.

The incredible new facility in Istanbul will make a wonderful addition to the many remarkable venues that feature on the ATP World Tour throughout the season. As we add an important market such as Turkey to our global footprint, the ATP World Tour will be set to take place across 62 tournaments in 32 countries in 2015.

I hope you have enjoyed what the 2014 ATP World Tour season has had to offer so far, and hope you enjoy the next few weeks of action as our events unfold across North America.

 

— The writer is ATP Executive Chairman and President.