ITF World Champions

Since 1978, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) has designated a "World Champion" each year based on performances throughout the year, including Grand Slam tournaments, the ATP World Tour Finals, the Davis Cup, and weekly tour events.

Men's singles

The International Tennis Federation's (ITF) choices for men's singles have been generally approved by tennis fans and the tennis media except in 1990 when the designation of Ivan Lendl was strongly criticized by those who claimed that the ITF was punishing Stefan Edberg for not playing the Grand Slam Cup.Tennis Magazine (France), February 1991, issue no. 179. The magazine said, "'On' a choisi de sanctionner un champion qui n'avait pas craint d'avouer publiquement le peu d'importance qu'il accordait à la Coupe du Grand Chelem, la fameuse invention de la FIT pour 'casser' l'ATP Tour." Translated into English, "'One' has chosen to sanction a champion who hadn't feared to publicly confess the little importance he granted to the Grand Slam Cup, the famous ITF invention to 'break' the ATP Tour." That year, the Association of Tennis Professionals named Edberg its "Player of The Year", in accordance with its computer ranking system, and Tennis Magazine (France) ranked Edberg first, Andre Agassi second, and Lendl third. Other instances when the ITF choices differed from the ATP rankings, usually with less controversy, are 1978 (Jimmy...
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