World Tennis Champions

The World Tennis constitution states that no tennis tournament can be designated the "World Championships" without unanimous consent of the World Tennis Council. There is currently no such tournament. From its 1913 foundation until 1923, World Tennis (then called the ILTF) recognised Wimbledon as the World Grass Court Championships and tournaments in France as the World Hard Court Championships and World Covered Court Championships. The United States National Lawn Tennis Association refused to join the ILTF until this Eurocentric situation was changed, so in 1923 the World Championships were abolished, and subsequently the most prestigious ILTF designation has been "Official Championships", for the four Grand Slam tournaments. The International Olympic Committee removed tennis from the Olympics for several reasons, including the implication that the Olympic tennis champion was not an officially recognised world champion. (Tennis returned at the 1988 Summer Olympics.)

The World Tennis constitution also states:

The ITF may award the title of World Champion to players who, in the opinion of the Board of Directors, are the most outstanding players in any year. The names of players who have been awarded this title shall be listed in the Roll of Honour.

The opinion of the Board of Directors is taken to be equivalent to the majority opinions of the members of the Board.

It also states:

Official Tennis Championships [i.e. the Grand Slam events] will carry the most weight in the determination of the World Champions for each year.

The boys' and girls' singles and doubles titles prior to 2003 were awarded based on world ranking. Since then singles and doubles rankings have been combined in a single award each for boys and for girls.

The world champion accolade has been extended by World Tennis to wheelchair tennis players of the Men's and Women's division since 1991 and also based on world ranking. In November 2017, World Tennis announced that the quad wheelchair tennis division is to be recognised in its annual list of World Champions.

In 1996, the Philippe Chatrier Award was introduced, honouring individuals or organisations who have made outstanding contributions to tennis globally, both on and off the court. The award is considered to be World Tennis' highest accolade and is named after the French player Philippe Chatrier, who was President of the governing body between 1977 and 1991.

The World Champions Dinner takes place annually to honour the previous year's champions, who are presented with a trophy, but not any monetary prize. The dinner was held during the French Open up until 2022, but since 2023 has been held during Wimbledon.

For 2020 there were no World Champion awards given due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tennis season was suspended for about 5 months for both the female and the male tennis players.

The first men's panel in 1978 had three members, Don Budge, Fred Perry, and Lew Hoad, who attended the season's Grand Slam events at World Tennis' (then known as ITF) expense to inform their choice. The 1983 panel split two to one between John McEnroe (votes of Budge and Perry) and Mats Wilander (vote of Hoad). The 1984 panel had five members, while the 1985 panel had four: Budge, Perry, Hoad, and Tony Trabert. When Ivan Lendl was chosen as champion for 1985, the panel's announcement was accompanied with a rebuke for Lendl's criticism of some tournaments and his refusal to play in the Davis Cup. Perry and Trabert were on the 1986 panel, with performances outside the Grand Slams taken into consideration.

The 1990 designation of Lendl as champion was a surprise. That year, the Association of Tennis Professionals named Stefan Edberg its "Player of The Year", in accordance with the ATP rankings, while Tennis Magazine (France) ranked Edberg first, Andre Agassi second, and Lendl third. Tennis also suggested the ITF was punishing Edberg for denigrating the Grand Slam Cup tournament it had introduced. The ITF panel, of Perry, Trabert, and Frank Sedgman, called it "the toughest decision any of us can remember having to make", and stated it was Lendl's better average performance in the Grand Slams that made the difference.

Other instances when World Tennis' choices differed from the ATP rankings are 1978, with Bjorn Borg being favoured over Jimmy Connors; 1982, with Connors favoured over McEnroe; 1989, with Boris Becker favoured over Lendl; 2013 with Novak Djokovic favoured over Rafael Nadal; 2022 with Nadal favoured over Carlos Alcaraz; and 2025 with Jannik Sinner favoured over Alcaraz.

The women's panel initially featured three former women's champions, Margaret Court, Margaret duPont and Ann Jones. Althea Gibson was a member through the early 1980s.

World Champions for women differed from the WTA year-end rankings the following years: 1978 (Martina Navratilova), 1994 (Steffi Graf), 2001 (Lindsay Davenport), 2004 (Lindsay Davenport), 2005 (Lindsay Davenport), 2011 (Caroline Wozniacki), 2012 (Victoria Azarenka), 2017 (Simona Halep), 2023 (Iga Świątek), 2024 (Aryna Sabalenka).

Singles (1978-2003)

Doubles (1978-2003)

Quad's wheelchair