1978 Grand Prix (tennis)

The 1978 Colgate-Palmolive Grand Prix was a professional tennis circuit held that year. It consisted of four Grand Slam tournaments, the Grand Prix tournaments and the Nations Cup, a team event. In addition eight World Championship Tennis (WCT) tournaments, a separate professional tennis circuit held from 1971 through 1977, were incorporated into the Grand Prix circuit. The 28 tournaments with prize money of $175,000 or more formed the Super Series category. Jimmy Connors won 10 of the 84 tournaments which secured him the first place in the Grand Prix points ranking. However he did not play enough tournaments (13) to qualify for largest share ($300,000) of the bonus pool, which instead went to third–ranked Eddie Dibbs.

Schedule
The table below shows the 1978 Colgate-Palmolive Grand Prix schedule (a forerunner to the ATP Tour).

Points system
The tournaments of the 1978 Grand Prix circuit were divided into nine point categories. The highest points were allocated to the Grand Slam tournaments; French Open, the Wimbledon Championships, the US Open and the Australian Open. The eight WCT events were part of the $175,000-plus "Super Series" category. Points were allocated based on these categories and the finishing position of a player in a tournament. The points table is based on a 32 player draw. No points were awarded to first-round losers and advancements by default were equal to winning a round. The points allocation, with doubles points listed in brackets, is as follows:

ATP rankings
*The official ATP year-end rankings were listed from January 3rd, 1979.

List of tournament winners
The list of winners and number of singles titles won, alphabetically by last name:
 * 🇮🇳 Vijay Amritraj (1) Mexico City
 * 🇺🇸 Arthur Ashe (3) San Jose, Columbus, Los Angeles
 * 🇸🇪 Björn Borg (9) Birmingham WCT, Boca Raton, Las Vegas, Milan WCT, Rome, French Open, Wimbledon, Båstad, Tokyo Indoor
 * 🇦🇷 José Luis Clerc (3) Florence, Buenos Aires, Santiago
 * 🇺🇸 Jimmy Connors (10) Philadelphia, Denver, Memphis, Rotterdam WCT, Birmingham, Washington, D.C., Indianapolis, Stowe, US Open, Sydney Indoor
 * 🇺🇸 Eddie Dibbs (4) Tulsa, Cincinnati, North Conway, Toronto
 * Cliff Drysdale (1) Baltimore
 * 🇦🇺 Mark Edmondson (1) Brisbane
 * 🇦🇹 Peter Feigl (1) Cleveland
 * 🇵🇱 Wojciech Fibak (1) Cologne
 * 🇺🇸 Peter Fleming (1) Bologna
 * 🇺🇸 Vitas Gerulaitis (3) Richmond WCT, Dallas WCT, Forest Hills WCT
 * 🇺🇸 Brian Gottfried (3) Washington Indoor, Dayton, Houston
 * 🇺🇸 Tim Gullikson (1) Johannesburg
 * Heinz Günthardt (1) Springfield
 * 🇪🇸 José Higueras (4) Cairo, Nice, Bournemouth, Madrid
 * 🇸🇪 Kjell Johansson (1) Nigeria
 * 🇳🇿 Chris Lewis (1) Kitzbühel
 * 🇺🇸 Robert Lutz (1) Bercy
 * 🇺🇸 Gene Mayer (1) Guadalajara
 * 🇺🇸 Sandy Mayer (1) St. Louis WCT
 * 🇺🇸 John McEnroe (4) Hartford, San Francisco, Stockholm, Wembley
 * Bernard Mitton (1) Newport
 * 🇷🇴 Ilie Năstase (2) Miami, WCT Challenge Cup
 * 🇫🇷 Yannick Noah (2) Manila, Calcutta
 * 🇪🇸 Manuel Orantes (1) Boston
 * 🇮🇹 Adriano Panatta (1) Tokyo Outdoor
 * Víctor Pecci (1) Bogotá
 * Ulrich Pinner (1) Stuttgart Outdoor
 * 🇲🇽 Raúl Ramírez (2) Mexico City WCT, Monte Carlo WCT
 * 🇺🇸 Cliff Richey (1) Johannesburg
 * 🇦🇺 Tony Roche (1) Queen's Club
 * 🇺🇸 Bill Scanlon (1) Maui
 * Tomáš Šmíd (1) Sarasota
 * 🇺🇸 Stan Smith (2) Atlanta, Vienna
 * 🇺🇸 Harold Solomon (2) Las Vegas, Louisville
 * 🇺🇸 Dick Stockton (1) Little Rock
 * 🇺🇸 Roscoe Tanner (2) Palm Springs, New Orleans
 * 🇭🇺 Balázs Taróczy (2) Hilversum, Barcelona
 * 🇺🇸 Brian Teacher (1) Taiwan
 * 🇺🇸 Eliot Teltscher (1) Hong Kong
 * 🇦🇷 Guillermo Vilas (7) Hamburg, Munich, Gstaad, South Orange, Aix-en-Provence, Basel, Australian Open
 * 🇺🇸 Tim Wilkison (1) Sydney Outdoor
 * Vladimír Zedník (1) Berlin
 * Werner Zirngibl (1) Brussels

The following players won their first title in 1978:
 * 🇦🇷 José Luis Clerc Florence
 * 🇦🇹 Peter Feigl Cleveland
 * 🇺🇸 Peter Fleming Bologna
 * Heinz Günthardt Springfield
 * 🇸🇪 Kjell Johansson Nigeria
 * 🇺🇸 Gene Mayer Guadalajara
 * 🇺🇸 John McEnroe Hartford
 * Bernard Mitton Newport
 * 🇫🇷 Yannick Noah Manila
 * Ulrich Pinner Stuttgart Outdoor
 * Tomáš Šmíd Sarasota
 * 🇺🇸 Eliot Teltscher Hong Kong
 * 🇺🇸 Tim Wilkison Sydney Outdoor