The men’s governing body, ATP, announced a revised mode of ranking calculation, once the Tour begins in August, on Monday.
The rankings, which reflect a player’s standing among the world’s best players and are used for tournament entry and seedings, are the lifeblood of professional tennis.
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Traditionally, the rankings are based on a ‘Best 18’ results over 52 weeks. But with Coronavirus pandemic leading to a five-month break in competition, the world rankings will now cover a period of 22 months (March 2019 – December 2020). The Rankings have been frozen since 16 March 2020, just days after the ATP Tour was suspended.
Among the key elements of the revised 22-month Ranking system are the following:
- A player’s ranking will be comprised of his ‘Best 18’ results between March 2019 and December 2020.
- A player cannot count the same Tour-level tournament twice in his ‘Best 18’ breakdown. For example, a player who played the Madrid Open in 2019 and plays Madrid again in 2020, will count the better of those two results.
- Tour-level tournament points added in 2020 that count in a player’s Ranking Breakdown will remain on a player’s ranking for 52 weeks, or until the event in question is played again in 2021, whichever comes first.
The temporary changes to the Rankings system have been made in consultation with the four Grand Slam tournaments and the ITF. Should the 2021 season be impacted by Covid-19, further adjustments to Rankings will be considered.
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The revised ATP Rankings will determine the singles qualifiers to the 2020 ATP Finals. As per normal, points earned at the season finale (as an additional 19th event) in 2019 will not count towards a player’s qualification for the 2020 event, ensuring a level playing field for 2020 qualification.
In doubles, the 2020 ATP Doubles Team Rankings will continue to be used to determine the eight teams that make it to London.
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