Wimbledon, Djokovic and ‘a price of consistency’: the keys to understanding the timing of the ATP ranking change

In the week that Daniil Medvedev will lose world number one, the debate over the value of the ATP rankings has been brought back to the table. And it is that since the pandemic the planetary list has received criticism for its management with the scores of the players.

The first thing that triggered this discomfort was the ATP’s decision to extend point protection for over a year and a half, being that in 2021 most players (if not all) were already spinning regularly.

In the first months, the measure was more than logical, but in the end it ended up punishing players who had started exploiting last year, and greatly favoring those who were going through bad streaks. The great example is Roger Federer, who was in the top 20 without having played for two years.

But when the release of the points came, other problems arose for the reliability of the classification. The first of them has a first and last name: Novak Djokovic.

At the end of 2021, no one saw it possible for Djokovic to lose the lead in the short term. After a brutal year, where he conquered the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and reached the final of the US Open, there was no player in better shape than him.

That’s until January 2022 and Nole’s perfect world was over. The Ocean Government’s ban on traveling to the island for not being vaccinated was just the first blow in a year that got him out more than in court. Due to issues with his decision not to be vaccinated, the Serb was unable to play the Australian Open, Indian Wells, Miami, Montreal, Cincinnati and the US Open. , automatically losing 3,250 points and being unable to play 8,000 units. Tournaments that could have changed everything.

Of course, Djokovic was not only punished for his decision not to get vaccinated, but the problems were heightened by the measure of taking the ATP points from Wimbledon, a tournament where this year he revalidated his title, but in where it was unable to retain the 2,000 units delivered by the British event.

Most likely, in a normal year, the Serb would currently be at least in contention for number one on the planet, which is far from happening now. It is currently the sixth on the planet. On Monday it will be seven and only 200 more units than the tenth ranked.

Another key moment for the world rankings was the British Grand Slam and its decision not to let Russian or Belarusian tennis players play due to the war in Ukraine. This caused an earthquake in the ATP, which determined that if not everyone could play there, the tournament could not earn points.

Due to this measure for example NNick Kyrgios couldn’t add 1,200 points, Rafael Nadal 720 or Christian Garin 180 . But the association did not stop there, since it also chose to eliminate the 2021 points. This is the reason why, for example Nole lost 2,000 units, Berrettini 1,200 and Hubert Hurkacz 720. He didn’t decide to protect players’ units, in a move that doesn’t seem so far-fetched if you see what they did when the pandemic hit and many professionals couldn’t play the events.

This made it impossible to talk about the standings today, not to mention the asterisk Wimbledon generated in the count. Leaving one of the four most unit-delivering events of the year without points is too relevant a factor in the discussion.

Nick Kyrgios said it bluntly when he beat Daniil Medvedev in the US Open Round of 16: “EThe ranking system doesn’t reward skill and form, honestly it only does so over a period of time. It rewards consistency more than anything else. Ranking is not something that matters to me, that’s the message I hope to have sent tonight. People have seen No. 1 take on No. 23, that’s all. I don’t care if I’m seeded or not, ranking don’t mean a thing ”. A sentence which, although influenced by the motivations and the planning of the Australian, demonstrates in a beautiful way the main axis of the ATP ranking.

The great example of this is Casper Ruud. If the Norwegian is now two wins (perhaps one) from becoming world number one, it is exclusively thanks to his consistency. Influenced by his 23 years and a neat physique, the Scandinavian is one of the players who plays the most tournaments in the year, claiming to be present, for example, on the South American circuit and on the European clay post- Roland Garros. tournaments.

Although he made the Roland Garros final and is now in the US Open semi-finals, Ruud still doesn’t know what it’s like to win a Grand Slam, a Masters 1000 title or a 500 category tournament . Neither this year nor the past. A record that immediately separates him from the players hitherto number one in the world.