WTA 1000 is a category of tennis tournaments on the WTA Tour organized by the Women's Tennis Association.
The Series was initially called WTA Tier I which began in 1988 and lasted until 2008. Records before 1990 are excluded from this list.[1] When the WTA Tour was established in 1990 there were initially six Tier I tournaments held annually in the first three years. The list thereafter expanded to eight events in 1993, nine in 1997 and ten in 2004, before being scaled back to nine for 2008.
In 2009 the WTA changed the tournament categories, so that the majority of Tier I and Tier II tournaments were in one category, Premier Tournaments, split into three categories: two of them being Premier Mandatory and Premier 5, comprising nine events being held with Wuhan, which replaced Tokyo in 2014, as the only exception.[2]
WTA Premier Mandatory and Premier 5 tournaments merged into a single highest tier and it is implemented since the reorganization of the schedule in 2021.[3][4]
In 2024 the WTA expanded to ten WTA 1000 tournaments, up from nine in 2023, with both Doha and Dubai becoming 1000 events every year instead of alternating.[5] There are ten WTA 1000 tournaments: Doha, Dubai, Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome, Canada, Cincinnati, Beijing and Wuhan.[6]
These tournaments offer 1000 ranking points for the winner.[5]
Only three tournaments were held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic: Doha, Rome and Cincinnati.[7][8]
Guadalajara replaced Wuhan and Beijing in 2022 due to the disappearance of Peng Shuai.[9][10]
On 1 March 2022, the WTA announced that players from Belarus will not be allowed to compete under the name or flag of Belarus following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[11]