The European Community Championship was a professional
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
tournament held from 1982 until 1998 in
Antwerp, Belgium. The tournament was held as a special invitational/exhibition event run outside the
Grand Prix series and did not distribute any
ATP ranking points until 1992, when the tournament became part of the
ATP Tour
The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organ ...
. While an exhibition tournament, invitations were extended to players who won a tournament title in Europe during that year. The surface of the tournament was indoor carpet.
The inaugural event was held in December 1982, with a $700,000 purse on offer for 24 players. At that time, the high level (Super Series) European Grand Prix events like the
Italian Open or indoor tournament in
Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...
, London offered only $300,000 and $200,000 respectively.
It was called the European Champions' Championship and from 1986 was renamed the European Community Championship (ECC). Its nickname was the "Gold Racquet" tournament because if a player won the tournament thrice within a 5-year span, he would also receive a special trophy, a life-size, 13.2-
pound gold racquet studded with 1,420 diamonds valued at $1,000,000, created by the artist Varozza. This inspired the
Proximus Diamond Games
The Diamond Games (due to sponsorship known for the last time as BNP Paribas Fortis Diamond Games and before that Proximus Diamond Games, GDF-Suez Diamond Games and Thomas Cook Diamond Games) was a professional women's tennis tournament organis ...
, a
WTA Tour
The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour.
WTA Tour tou ...
event held in Antwerp since 2002, to have a similar trophy system.
In 1985,
Ivan Lendl
Ivan Lendl (; born March 7, 1960) is a Czech–American former professional tennis player. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Lendl was ranked world No. 1 in singles for 270 weeks and won 94 singles titles. ...
won his third title within 4 years and received the $200,000 winners prize together with the Gold Racquet. In 1991,
Boris Becker spoiled Lendl's quest for a $1,250,000 million prize ($250,000 prize money plus the $1,000,000 racquet) at the ECC in Antwerp by beating him 6–4, 7–5 in the semifinals. Had Lendl won, he would have kept the gold-and-diamond racquet trophy valued at about $1,000,000, adding to his from 1985. He was in the running for a second after victories in 1987 and 1989, but wound up with only $100,000 that year.
Past finals
Singles
Doubles
See also
*
European Open
References
*
World of Tennis
''World of Tennis'' was the International Tennis Federation's (ITF) official tennis annual until it was replaced by The ITF Year. It was published annually beginning in 1969 and became an official ITF publication in 1981. ''World of Tennis'' was ...
annuals
{{Tennis exhibition tournaments
Tennis tournaments in Belgium
Exhibition tennis tournaments
Indoor tennis tournaments
Defunct tennis tournaments in Europe
Defunct sports competitions in Belgium
Carpet court tennis tournaments
Hard court tennis tournaments