There are no real winners in the corona pandemic, not even in tennis, which has been playing again since the summer, but almost without spectators. The season ended on Sunday with the final of the eight best of the year in London’s O2 Arena. In a hall that could accommodate up to 17,500 spectators and whose acoustics are unmatched because it was originally designed for concerts. In the high-class final, the Russian Daniil Medvedev (ATP 4) prevailed against the Austrian Dominic Thiem (ATP 3) and won his most important title to date. So he did not break out in jubilation. “Not partying is my thing,” he said.
Medvedev is the man of the hour and overtook Roger Federer in the world rankings with the tournament victories in Paris-Bercy and now in London. The Swiss finished the year in which he played a tournament and reached the semi-finals at the Australian Open in January, where he was defeated by the eventual winner Novak Djokovic, in fifth place. Even before Alexander Zverev, who like Federer was in the semi-finals in Melbourne, reached the final at the US Open and Paris-Bercy and won two tournaments in Cologne. Also before the Russian Andrei Rublew, who won the most tournaments (5) and most games (like Djokovic 41) in 2020.
Roger Federer would like to return to the tennis circus at the Australian Open in January – he will then still be number 5 in the world.
© Keystone
Protection for well-ranked players
Federer benefits from the fact that the professional organization ATP decided in April to freeze the world rankings. Since then, the rule has been that the 18 best results from the period between March 2019 and March 2021 apply. Before that, points were no longer valued after 52 weeks at the latest, now it happens after two years at the latest. So, de facto, a world ranking was introduced that takes into account the best results from two years. A solution that Rafael Nadal has been promoting for years and has allowed him to forego the US Open as defending champion this year without losing the 2000 points.
However, the rule has a catch: The 18 results that are included in the rating must have been collected in 18 different tournaments. That means: If you did worse than last year in those tournaments that could still take place this year, the result from the previous year will remain in the rating. In concrete terms, this means that at the end of the year no player had fewer points in the rating than on March 16, when the world rankings were frozen. On the one hand, the new regulation rewards players who were successful in this particular year (such as Andrei Rublew), on the other hand, it protects them who are better classified.
What the ATP world rankings would look like if only results from 2020 were taken into account.
© openerarankings.com
Swiss Marc-Andrea Hüsler as a loser
The biggest beneficiary is Roger Federer, who had to undergo knee surgery in January and summer and wants to return to the tennis circus at the Australian Open in January. Last year he reached the final at Wimbledon (1200 points), the semi-finals at the French Open (720 points) and the quarter-finals at the US Open (360 points). The 1000 points he received for his victory in Miami in 2019 and the 600 points for reaching the final in Indian Wells also remained in the ranking. The same applies to the tournament victories in Halle and the canceled Swiss Indoors Basel, which each earned him 500 points and the 400 points for the two group victories at the 2019 ATP Finals.
In the adjusted world rankings, which only take into account results from the 2020 season, Roger Federer would take 28th place. After taking a six-month break from 2016, he dropped to 17th place before celebrating his 18th Grand Slam victory at the 2017 Australian Open. Matteo Berrettini (ATP 10), who is only 38th in the annual ranking, and Nick Kyrgios (ATP 45 instead of 90) are among the beneficiaries. The biggest losers are Lorenzo Musetti (ATP 127), who took 61st place in the annual ranking (-66), Aslan Karatsew (ATP 111, -64), Jurji Rodionov (ATP 142, -58), the Swiss Marc-Andrea Hüsler (ATP 146, – 55). Stan Wawrinka ended 2020 in 18th place in the world rankings (+1 compared to the annual ranking).
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