[2] In July 1971 at its annual meeting, the ILTF voted to ban all WCT contract professionals from their tournaments and facilities from the beginning of 1972 onwards.

This meant that leading WCT players such as Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Arthur Ashe and John Newcombe did not initially have permission to compete in the Grand Prix circuit and Newcombe could not defend his two consecutive Wimbledon titles of 1970 and 1971.

In April 1972, however, an agreement was reached between the ILTF and WCT that divided the 1973 tour in a WCT circuit that ran from January through April and a Grand Prix circuit that was scheduled for the rest of the year.

[3] Under the agreement the players contracted by the WCT could play in the Grand Prix events as of September 1972.

No points were awarded for first round losers Cliff Richey, Roscoe Tanner, Alex Metreveli, Tom Okker and Arthur Ashe played too few Grand Prix tournaments to qualify for prize money.