ATP Rankings ‘Solution’

The ATP, after months of silence, has finally released its solution to the world rankings problem, as we draw closer to a return (pandemic allowing) to professional tournament tennis.

Before the suspension of everything, including freezing the rankings - pre Indian Wells in March - the rankings total for ATP players aggregated the best 18 points performances over the most recent 52 week period.

The top players, by virtue of their ranking, would gain automatic entry to the four Grand Slam tournaments and nine Masters 1000 events. Accordingly, points gained from these would be required in the ‘best 18’, irrespective of whether the player chose to contest the tournament or not.

Lower ranked players would be subject to the same rules, but only to whichever of the GS or Masters 1000 events they automatically gained entry.

Now, the best 18 concept remains, but the period has changed.  It will cover the 22 month period March 2019 - December 2020.

For the rest of this year, no player will lose any of his current ranking points, but he may improve his position.

Example: Roland Garros

2019 points are currently included in all relevant players’ frozen rankings, but the tournament is scheduled to be contested again in September this year.

Players will now include the better of his 2020 or 2019 result in the ‘best 18’ total.

This is so for any same Tour-level tournament, if played in 2020 once tennis resumes in August.

Rafa Nadal, could retain his RG title this year, lose in the first round, or skip the event altogether, and his ranking points will be unaffected. His 2000 points from 2019 cannot be improved.

Novak Djokovic made the 2019 semi finals, gaining 720 points, and so has the potential to improve his position. By making this years final, he would gain an extra 480 points; a win would give him 2000 points and a net increase of 1280 points.

Any tournaments played in 2020 will count for 52 weeks or until that event is played again in 2021, whichever comes first.

One should expect Roland Garros to be scheduled in May / June 2021.

The events that were played in January - March this year, and are counted in rankings, will be replaced as per normal in 2021.

So, a player could feasibly have a rankings breakdown for a fair chunk of next year which includes points from Australian Open 2021, Roland Garros 2020, Wimbledon 2019 and US Open 2019.