Why Novak Djokovic will drop 2,000 ranking points despite winning Wimbledon

Written by Namit KumarNew Delhi | Updated: July 11, 2022 4:56:13 pm

Novak Djokovic has become only the fourth men’s player (after Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras, and Roger Federer) to win a fourth-consecutive Wimbledon title, as he defeated Australia’s Nick Kyrgios 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the final on Sunday. The Serb is now second in the all-time men’s Grand Slam leaderboard with a 21st title, trailing Rafael Nadal’s total of 22, and ahead of Roger Federer’s total of 20.

Despite that, however, he is guaranteed to lose his place in the top 5 of the men’s rankings. After his deportation from Melbourne did not allow him to defend his Australian Open title and drop 2,000 points, his tally plummeted even further after his French Open title defence was ended in the quarterfinal by Rafael Nadal last month. The Serb’s points total will take another major hit as he will be dropping another 2,000 points after the fortnight in London, following the ATP and WTA’s decision last month to strip Wimbledon of ranking points in 2022.

The announcement came in the wake of Wimbledon’s ban on players from Russia and Belarus following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The All England Club’s decision was met with condemnation from the likes of Djokovic and Nadal at the time.

Magnificent.

In its 100 years, Centre Court has seen few champions like @DjokerNole#Wimbledon | #CentreCourt100pic.twitter.com/vffvL2f08Q

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 10, 2022

The move did dampen the hype around the tournament, with four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, who is not playing due to an Achilles injury, saying last month, according to The Guardian, that the oldest Grand Slam tournament “is more like an exhibition” without ranking points. But the main draws are still stacked, and given what it continues to offer in terms of both prestige and prize money, there is still a lot to play for at SW19 this year.

Djokovic was one of the more vocal critics of Wimbledon’s decision in April. While speaking after his first-round victory at the French Open, the Serb praised the ATP and the players for getting together and showing a Grand Slam event that there are consequences to a “mistake” they may make. The 20-time Major champion added that it is a “lose-lose” situation for everyone.

Simply put, ranking points are the most valuable currency in professional tennis. Each weekly list of rankings represents the total points awarded to players over the last 52 weeks. Following the conclusion of each tournament, players are awarded ranking points they win at the event, and drop the points they won at the same event the previous year.

A high ranking offers a number of privileges on tour. The 32 highest-ranked players are given seeds ahead of a Grand Slam thereby guaranteeing they will not be playing each other for the first two matches. At some non-Slam events, higher-ranked players are awarded byes in the first round.

Both men’s and women’s Grand Slam events award 2000 ranking points to the winner. The runner-up of the men’s event receives 1200 points and the women’s event receives 1300. Semifinalists receive 720 and 780 points respectively.

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The eight players that earn the most points in a calendar year also participate in the year-end ATP and WTA tour finals, which award points for each win and a total of 2000 ranking points for the title.

Statement regarding ATP / WTA / ITF ranking points at The Championships 2022.

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) May 20, 2022

Novak Djokovic with 6,770 ranking points, has lost his place at the top to both Daniil Medvedev (7,995) and Alexander Zverev (7,030), now ranking third, just ahead of Nadal (6,525).

Iga Swiatek leads the WTA rankings by a huge margin with 8,576 points, the gap between her and No.2 Ons Jabeur is a whopping 4,236 points.

In addition to not having the opportunity to win points, players will also be dropping points from last year. No matter what the outcome, Djokovic, who anyway had no points to gain as the defending champion, will be dropping 2000 points, taking his total down to 4,770 and his ranking down to World No. 7.

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The move works in the favour of the likes of Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, who only dropped 180 points from his Round 4 finish at SW19 last year, and Nadal, who missed the event last year due to injury, and only dropped 360 points, 50% of his 2019 haul which is still on his name thanks to a complicated pandemic-adjusted ranking system.

A hand injury has kept last year’s finalist Matteo Berrettini out of action throughout the clay season. The Italian timed his comeback on tour to play a full grass season, and after titles in Stuttgart and Queens, but with great misfortune, he missed Wimbledon after contracting COVID-19 right before his first-round match. Now, the loss of points from last year’s finish has forced him to fall as low as 15th in the rankings.

While 2021 champion Ash Barty may have retired, the Wimbledon point freeze will impact the top of the women’s rankings as well. Last year’s finalist and World No. 8 Karolina Pliskova will be falling out of the top 10 of the women’s rankings. Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka has already dropped to seventh in the rankings after a lacklustre clay season, and will lose another 780 points.

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Perhaps the bigger shame is for the likes of Tim Van Rijthoven, Harmony Tan, and Tajana Maria, all relatively unknown on tour prior to the Championships, but will not be getting the ranking privileges they deserve after a maiden deep run at a Major,

© The Indian Express (P) LtdFirst published on: 24-05-2022 at 10:54:41 pm Next Story

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