The WTA 1000 tournaments are a category of tennis tournaments on the WTA Tour, governed by the Women's Tennis Association. The old WTA Premier Mandatory and Premier 5 tournaments merged into a single highest tier implemented in the 2021 schedule reorganization. Only four of the nine WTA 1000 tournaments were mandatory until 2024, when the category expanded to ten mandatory tournaments.
The ranking points awarded to the winners of these tournaments are 1,000. This compares to 2,000 points for winning a Grand Slam tournament ("major"), up to 1,500 points for winning the WTA Finals, 500 points for winning a WTA 500 tournament, and 250 for winning a WTA 250 tournament.
Following the unification of the two women's tennis circuits that were managed within the WTA Tour in 1987 â the Virginia Slims Circuit and the ILTF Women's International Grand Prix Circuit â WTA 1000 tournaments were known as WTA Category 5 and WTA Category 6. Later renamed WTA Tier I tournaments in 1990, results in these tournaments would give players more points than almost every other tournament excluding Grand Slams and the year-end championships.
Prior to 2009, the WTA released a "Roadmap" outlining changes made to the tour in an effort to streamline the tour calendar. With this reform came the abolishment of the tier system, replaced by WTA Premier and WTA International categories. Pre-existing Tier I tournaments were split into two categories: Premier Mandatory, which required all top 10 players to attend, and Premier 5, which required at least seven top 10 players.
At the beginning of the 2021 season, the WTA announced they would once again revamp their tournament categorisation system to one reminiscent of the ATP Tour, in an effort to "create consistency between professional tennis". This revamp once again combined the Premier Mandatory and Premier 5 categories, though WTA 1000 tournaments were still split into mandatory and non-mandatory events, with less ranking points given to the latter. This was until 2024, when the WTA announced that all WTA 1000 tournaments would be mandatory.
The following ranking points are as of 2025.
As of 2025, there are ten tournaments that are part of the WTA 1000. Eight of these tournaments are held on outdoor hardcourts whilst the other two are held on clay. Additionally, there are three tournaments that are considered WTA only: the Qatar Open, Dubai Tennis Championships and Wuhan Open.
When the WTA 1000 category was originally established, there were four mandatory tournaments (Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing) and five non-mandatory tournaments (Dubai, Rome, Canada, Cincinnati and Wuhan), though Beijing and Wuhan were both cancelled that year. Wuhan Open was temporarily replaced by the Guadalajara Open in 2022, following the cancellation of the two Chinese tournaments for the second year in a row, though Beijing returned the following year.
The 2024 season saw all WTA 1000 tournaments become mandatory. Wuhan returned whilst Guadalajara was demoted to a WTA 500 tournament. Doha and Dubai, which had been alternating between WTA 1000 and WTA 500 status every year since 2015, both became permanent WTA 1000 tournaments.
WTA Tour
ATP Tour