I was musing on the fact we have 3 back to back Futures events this month in GB as well as 3 grass Challengers and also , if it works as per last season, 3 Futures events towards the end of the year (on the mens side that is).

It made me think back to the old Satellite circuits and I wondered if anyone recalled those. As per wiki: 

Tennis[edit]

In professional tennis, satellite tournaments were four-week tournaments, typically organised by a country's national tennis association and overseen by the International Tennis Federation. They were played by players who were ranked outside the top few hundred by the Association of Tennis Professionals, with openings for unranked players in the qualifying draw. Total prize money ranged from $25,000 to $50,000 for the tournament. The men's satellite tournaments were discontinued following the 2006 season as the circuit moved exclusively to one-week Futures tournaments. 

The way I recall them is that in a 4 week circuit, the first 3 weeks were standalone events with effectively the same main field plus qualifiers. In each event, rather than ATP points, the players would gather points within the satellite circuit. At the end of week 3, the top points scorers (top 24) would play in the Masters event, with 8 getting byes and next 16 playing in round one.  The Masters carried more points and at the end of the Masters event, a circuit ranking order would be produced and at that point ATP points allocated.

I can recall the creation of a circuit made it quite interesting and thought it was a shame that even if the old formal satellite circuits may never come back , do any of the Futures events "join" together as a circuit and maybe offer extra money to the top players in the circuit? It would help incentivise overseas players to commit to a group of events rather than one offs and maybe create some additional interest.

Also worth noting that prizemoney for these circuits could be $50k - things havent improved a great deal over 10-15-20 years!