"It will be remembered in tennis lore as the "Parking Lot News Conference." In 1988, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the men's professional tennis players' asscociation, used a parking lot at the U.S. Open to announce that they would assume control of the game. It was a gesture as symbolic as it was strategic. Since the players were barred from using an on-site setting at the U.S. Open, ATP chief Hamilton Jordan seized the opportunity to demonstrate how the players were on the outside looking in.

It was the defining moment in the evolution from the ATP, formed in 1972 under the leadership of superstar Jack Kramer, to the ATP Tour, the governing body of the worldwide men's professional tennis circuit. "Tennis at the Crossroads," a plan presented at the U.S. Open by Jordan and top players as Mats Wilander and Tim Mayotte, detailed the problems and conflicts confronting men's professional tennis as well as the tremendous opportunities available for promoting and marketing the game.

One of the options outlined in "Tennis at the Crossroads" was for the players to form a new tour in which they would play a major role and bear greater responsibility for the future of the sport. The idea was quickly embraced by the membership. Eighty-five of the Top 100 ranked players signed a letter of support for a new tour within weeks after the news conference. By the fall of 1988, 24 top players had signed contracts to play on the ATP Tour, which began operation in January of 1990. During the same period, tournament directors representing many of the world's leading events voiced their support for the players and joined them in what what become a partnership unique in professional sports-players and tournaments, each with an equal voice in how the circuit is run.