2020/2021 ATP Rankings & Rules

ATP Rankings Report – Jan. 13, 2020

By Stephanie Myles | tennis.life  
January 13, 2020



The ATP Cup was very good to a few players, who made hay.

As examples, Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz earned 190 points with round-robin victories over Dominic Thiem, Diego Schwartzman and Borna Coric. Denis Shapovalov earned 150 points with wins over Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev.

And Novak Djokovic earned … 665 points by leading Serbia to the ATP Cup trophy. Given there are no 500-level events leading up to the Australian Open, that’s called maximizing his effort. Djokovic was 930 points behind Rafael Nadal in the rankings a week ago, after the 90 points from his semifinal effort in Doha to start the 2019 season fell off. Now, that gap is down to 515 points; Nadal earned 400 points in the ATP Cup.


ON THE UPSWING

Daniil Medvedev: No. 5 ===> No. 4
(Medvedev snags a top-four seed in Melbourne with a great ATP Cup, while No. 4 Thiem had a no-so-great one).

Roberto Bautista Agut: No. 10 ===> No. 9
(The Spanish No. 2 at the ATP Cup had a brilliant tournament – he went 6-0 and only once (in the final) even came close to dropping a set. But because he was in a relatively weak pool, playing lower-ranked players until the semifinals, it wasn’t worth all that much in the big picture – just 305 ranking points. Still, his ranking moves up a spot and ties his career high).

► ATP Cup Results

Denis Shapovalov: No. 14 ===> No. 13
(Victories over Tsitsipas and Zverev propel Shapovalov to a career-high ranking.

Andrey Rublev : No. 23 ===> No. 18
(Rublev wisely took a a pass on the ATP Cup, where as the No. 3 singles player he would have been a well-paid cheerleader. Instead, he played Doha and moves to a career-best ranking with his third career title.

► More UPSWING

Nick Kyrgios: No. 29 ===> No. 26
(Kyrgios’s ATP Cup effort helps him in singles, but also helped in doubles as he moved up 20 spots).

Dusan Lajovic: No. 34 ===> No. 27
(The No. 2 Serb might be the biggest winner from the ATP Cup. In a tough pool, he helped Serbia by being a ock at the No. 2 spot. And he upped his ranking to ensure he would be seeded at the Australian Open).

Daniel Evans: No. 42 ===> No. 33
(Evans was impressive at the No. 1 spot, inherited when Andy Murray couldn’t go. He went 3-1, earned 200 ranking points (and $236,850 in prize money), and moved his ranking to not only a career high, but a seeded spot at a Slam for the first time).




Hubert Hurkacz: No. 37 ===> No. 34
(The 22-year-old form Poland also put himself into a seeded spot in Melbourne with his 3-0 record at ATP Cup. A year ago, coming into the Australian, he was ranked No. 88).

Casper Ruud: No. 53 ===> No. 46
(The 21-year-old from Norway and his gang at the ATP Cup certainly looked like they enjoyed their stay; Ruud went 2-1, earned 130 points, and is making his top-50 debut in the rankings with a career high).

Miomir Kecmanovic (SRB): No. 62 ===> No. 53
(The 20-year-old Serb moves up with a semifinal effort in Doha. A year ago, he was at No. 131 to start the season).

Corentin Moutet: No. 81 ===> No. 70
(The 20-year-old French lefty is at a career-best ranking after rolling from the qualifying to the final in Doha. It’s actually surprising that it wasn’t worth more spot).

Philipp Kohlschreiber: No. 79 ===> No. 74
(The 36-year-old former No. 16 wins the Canberra Challenger, which was relocated to Bendigo because of the effect of the bush fires on the air there).

Yuichi Sugita: No. 100 ===> No. 89

Lloyd Harris: No. 99 ===> No. 91

Kevin Anderson: No. 147 ===> No. 121 (Anderson’s return to action at the ATP Cup was impressive, given how long he was out. Despite that shirt).

Steve Darcis: No. 200 ===> No. 176
(The … retired? Belgian captained the team at the ATP Cup, and played some good tennis, too).

Ulises Blanch: No. 419 ===> No. 265
(That’s a huge jump for the 21-year-old American, who won the 80 Challenger in Ann Arbor, Michigan last week.

ON THE DOWNSWING

Kei Nishikori:: No. 13 ===> No. 16
(Not ready to start again after an elbow procedure, Nishikori is skipping the entire Australian swing. He won Brisbane a year ago. And he’ll also drop 360 points from a quarterfinal effort at the Australian Open last year. That will drop him out of the top 20).

Alex de Minaur: No. 18 ===> No. 21
(De Minaur played well in the ATP Cup. But he only earned 140 points; that wasn’t nearly enough to offset the 45 he earned in Brisbane a year ago, and the 250 he got for winning Sydney).



Milos Raonic: No. 32 ===> No. 35
(It’s hard to know if Raonic will be in form, as he has played so little. But he might be a dangerous, unseeded floater in Melbourne unless, say, someone like Matteo Berrettini pulls out and he can squeeze into the top 32).

► More DOWNSWING

Yasutaka Uchiyama: No. 81 ===> No. 92
(The 27-year-old didn’t play ATP Cup, where he would have been the No. 2. And his points from a run through the qualifying and on to the quarters in Brisbane drop off).

Cameron Norrie: No. 52 ===> No. 62
(The 24-year-old South African-born Brit went 2-2 at the ATP Cup, losing to the nearly-retired Belgian, Steve Darcis and beating two players ranked No. 423 and No. 818. A year ago, he got to the Auckland finals. He lost in the first round of Auckland to qualifier Thiago Monteiro).

Andreas Seppi: No. 71 ===> No. 84

Leonardo Mayer: No. 88 ===> No. 100

Tennys Sandgren: No. 68 ===> No. 101
(The American, a quarterfinalist at the Australian Open two years ago, lost in the first round of Doha to eventual finalist Moutet. He won his first and so far only career title in Auckland a year ago, and those points drop off).

Marcel Granollers: No. 109 ===> No. 129

By Stuart Fraser, Tennis Correspondent, The Times  
Thursday 20 February 2020, 12.00pm

Roger Federer ruled out of French Open after knee surgery

Roger Federer will not be seen again on a match court before the summer grass-court season. The 20-times grand-slam champion announced that he has undergone knee surgery and will sit out a series of tournaments over the next three and a half months.

Federer, 38, was due to return next week at the Dubai Championships to defend his title until his sudden revelation today. 

He underwent a successful arthroscopic procedure in Switzerland yesterday after suffering pain in his right knee over the past few weeks.  Several upcoming events have now been removed from Federer’s schedule, including the French Open, which starts in May. His priority now is to be in peak shape by late June for Wimbledon, where his best chance lies of adding to his collection of major trophies.

“My right knee has been bothering me for a little while,” a Federer statement read. “I hoped it would go away, but after an examination, and discussion with my team, I decided to have arthroscopic surgery in Switzerland yesterday.  After the procedure, the doctors confirmed that it was the right thing to have done and are very confident of a full recovery. As a result, I unfortunately have to miss Dubai, Indian Wells, Bogota, Miami and the French Open.”

Federer’s right-knee issues come four years after he had surgery on his left knee. In early 2016, he bizarrely suffered a torn meniscus while running a bath for his twin daughters and he later decided to call a premature end to the season by taking a break from the tour for further rehabilitation in the last five months of the year.  That long period of rest served Federer well as he made a stunning return by winning the 2017 Australian Open, and he will be hoping for a similar outcome this time.

He will likely play grass-court tournaments in Stuttgart and Halle in preparation for another attempt at a ninth Wimbledon title, to which he came so close last year after failing to convert two championship points in a thrilling final against Novak Djokovic.

Federer’s ageing body was given a thorough workout at the start of this year. The Australian Open was a gruelling tournament for him, playing two long five-set matches before losing to Djokovic in the semi-finals.  There was, however, no particular outward sign then of any issues with his knee, more so a groin injury, for which he had a scan midway through the fortnight.

While Federer will be disappointed to miss the prestigious “Sunshine Double” of back-to-back Masters tournaments on hard courts in Indian Wells and Miami next month — as well as a scheduled exhibition appearance in Bogota in between — the European clay-court swing will be no great miss for him.  Last year was the first time he had played on the surface since 2016, and the physical demands of the slow courts are a big ask for someone of his age.

It does, though, give Nadal, a 12-times French Open champion, even more of a chance at Roland Garros to equal Federer’s record for the most men’s grand-slam singles titles. Federer has already conceded that Nadal, on 19, and Djokovic, on 17, are both likely to pass his total at some point anyway.

Federer, presently the world No 3, is set to fall to about No 7 or No 8 by the time he returns in June, as 3,180 of his 7,130 ranking points will now drop off because of his inability to defend them. But he still has a good chance of claiming a Wimbledon seeding inside the top-four because of the All England Club’s use of a special formula that gives extra weighting to a player’s results on grass over the past two years.

In addition to Wimbledon, there is another significant target for Federer this summer: his last chance of claiming an elusive Olympic singles gold medal in Tokyo. The event will be played on hard courts from July 25-August 2, and it should be particularly beneficial for Federer — who turns 39 on August 8 — that there are no best-of-five-set matches.