Additionally, commitment players will no longer need to enter the 500 events 12 weeks in advance but instead go back the normal 6-week entry deadline.

Just as in Formula One and numerous other sports, if a competitor misses a race or an event, he loses his chance to earn points.

[23] He then won his 6th title of the year at Western & Southern Open over Djokovic, not dropping a set or his serve during the entire tournament.

[25] He then played the Swiss Indoors Basel as the defending champion but lost to Juan Martín del Potro in the final.

[27] Djokovic then won his second title of the year at the Sony Ericsson Open without dropping and set and defeating Andy Murray in the final.

At the Asian swing he made a sweep winning the China Open over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and the Shanghai Rolex Masters over Andy Murray, saving 5 match points in the second set.

This is Nadal's 8th time to qualify for the event, however he was forced to withdraw from the tournament due to a left knee injury.

Andy Murray started the year with the appointment of new coach Ivan Lendl,[46] and opened winning the title at the Brisbane International, defeating Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine in the final.

[47] Murray then competed in the Australian Open, where he reached the semifinals before being beaten by Novak Djokovic in a tightly fought match that lasted almost 5 hours.

[23] In the mixed doubles final, Murray and Robson faced Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi of Belarus, but lost in three sets, settling for the silver medal.

[50] He next entered the Australian Open and managed to reach the quarter-finals before losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic[51] He then went on to win back-to-back titles at the Copa Claro over Nicolás Almagro, and Abierto Mexicano Telcel over Fernando Verdasco.

[59] Ferrer won his 7th title of the year, the most of any player at the BNP Paribas Masters defeating qualifier Jerzy Janowicz in the final.

Tomáš Berdych began the year by winning the Hopman Cup with Petra Kvitová over France's Marion Bartoli and Richard Gasquet.

Juan Martín del Potro reached the quarter-finals of the first slam of the year in the Australian Open losing to Roger Federer.

[71] At the French Open he reached the quarter-finals but fell to Federer for the fifth time in the year despite leading two sets to love he lost.

[73] He bounced back at the Olympics winning the Bronze Medal match over Novak Djokovic after losing to Federer in the semifinals.

On 1 November, after reaching the quarter-final of the Paris Masters, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Janko Tipsarević booked the final two spots of the event.

[68] This is the third time that Tsonga has qualified for the event.Janko Tipsarević began the year by reaching the final of the Aircel Chennai Open but ended up losing to Milos Raonic in three tie-break sets .

[87][88] At the US Open he reached his second straight quarter-finals at the event but once again lost this time to David Ferrer, despite leading the final set 4–1.

[101] Mirnyi also claimed the mixed doubles gold medal at the Olympics pairing with Victoria Azarenka defeating the British team of Murray/Robson.

[110] Mike Bryan also competed with Lisa Raymond to take the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon over Vesnina/Paes and the bronze medal at the Summer Olympics over the German pairing of Lisicki/Kas.

[111][112] On 19 August, the team of Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecău qualified for the event after winning the Western & Southern Open.

[117] They bounced back by winning Lindstedt's home tournament at the SkiStar Swedish Open for the third straight time defeating the pairing Peya/Soares.

[118] They won their biggest title of the year at the Western & Southern Open a Masters 1000 event defeating the Indian pairing of Bhupathi/Bopanna in the final.

[121] On 6 October, after reaching the final of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships, the team of India's Leander Paes and Radek Štěpánek were announced as the fourth qualifiers.

[122][123] Paes also won another title pairing with Janko Tipsarević defeating the Israel duo of Erlich/Ram at the Aircel Chennai Open.

[124] Paes also reached the final of two mixed doubles slam with Elena Vesnina but end up losing in both, at the Australian Open to Mattek-Sands/Tecău and at Wimbledon to Raymond/Bryan.

[111][121] On 15 October, after securing their position in the top 20, Wimbledon champions Britain's Jonathan Marray and Denmark's Frederik Nielsen qualified for the event.

[131] On 1 November, after reaching the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Masters, Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer claimed one of the two remaining spots.

Mahesh Bhupathi & Rohan Bopanna claimed their first title of the year at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships defeating the Polish team of Fyrstenberg/Matkowski.