The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women’s Association of Tennis (WTA) decided to strip the Wimbledon tournament this year, granting the participants ranking points. This action followed the announcement by the All-England Club that Russian and Belarusian players would be banned from playing in Wimbledon 2022 due to the war. The ATP and WTA expressed that their actions opposed the “discrimination” certain players faced at Wimbledon this year. As the final matches of Wimbledon are concluded, many players suffer greatly from losing ranking points, including the tournament winners. The consequences are most severe for the players, even though the decision of denying ranking points was supposed to target the Wimbledon tournament itself. This has led players to speak out angrily about the pointless action.
Among those most affected is Novak Djokovic, the champion of this year’s Men’s Singles, his 4th consecutive win at Wimbledon. Despite being the winner, he has suffered a ranking drop from 3rd to 7th. He lost a massive number of 2,000 ranking points after the tournament earned from his Men’s Singles title in 2021. Even though the players didn’t gain ranking points this year at Wimbledon, they still lost the points by their performance at last year’s Wimbledon. Usually, players gain the new number of ranking points earned in the current year and must drop the points from the previous year.
The other Men’s Singles finalist, Nick Kyrgios, also faces challenging problems for the upcoming US Open in New York. Unless he performs exceptionally well in games the next seven weeks until the US Open, his ranking of 45 will not grant him a seed in the top 32 players. No seed means that he will have to draw an opponent who could be top level, which would put him in immediate danger at the start of the tournament. Kyrgios will not have to play any of the other top 32 players in the tournament’s first two rounds if he earns a seed. Supposedly, his outstanding performance in Wimbledon as a finalist, even though he lost, was going to bring his ranking up until the 15th with 1200 ranking points earned.
Some other lower-ranked players who performed outstandingly this year at Wimbledon don’t get the benefits and instead suffer huge drops.
For example, 28-year-old Liam Broady ranked number 5 in Great Britain, played into the 3rd round at Wimbledon for the first time this year after beating the 12th seed Diego Schwartzman. “I’m losing 45 points from last year. I think I’ll probably drop back now to 150 [in the world]” Broady said, ranked at 132. He posted in response to a tweet about Djokovic’s rank situation, “I am failing to see how this is punishing Wimbledon?”
Broady’s fellow British Cameron Norrie was upset about his own lost opportunity to rise to a career-high ranking. Still, he expressed sympathy, especially for lower-ranked players who have it even harder in the future. He played into the semifinals but was unfortunately defeated by Djokovic. Usually, he would have earned 720 ranking points, bringing him from 12th to 8th in the ATP rankings. “I think it’s disappointing for me. But for me, it changes absolutely nothing. I’m still going to be seeded highly and still going to be in every tournament. What’s really tough is the players just outside the top 100 and guys like Liam Broady, who made the third round, and Alastair Gray, who would now be in Slam qualies [qualification].” Norrie commented.
The decision to ban ranking points did not have any benefits whatsoever. Many players have played fantastically in Wimbledon 2022 but now end up with unfair rank drops. Nevertheless, the initial banning of Russian and Belarusian players mixing politics with sports contributed to the pointless and unhappy situation in the tennis world today.
Sources: https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/62099840
Among those most affected is Novak Djokovic, the champion of this year’s Men’s Singles, his 4th consecutive win at Wimbledon. Despite being the winner, he has suffered a ranking drop from 3rd to 7th. He lost a massive number of 2,000 ranking points after the tournament earned from his Men’s Singles title in 2021. Even though the players didn’t gain ranking points this year at Wimbledon, they still lost the points by their performance at last year’s Wimbledon. Usually, players gain the new number of ranking points earned in the current year and must drop the points from the previous year.
The other Men’s Singles finalist, Nick Kyrgios, also faces challenging problems for the upcoming US Open in New York. Unless he performs exceptionally well in games the next seven weeks until the US Open, his ranking of 45 will not grant him a seed in the top 32 players. No seed means that he will have to draw an opponent who could be top level, which would put him in immediate danger at the start of the tournament. Kyrgios will not have to play any of the other top 32 players in the tournament’s first two rounds if he earns a seed. Supposedly, his outstanding performance in Wimbledon as a finalist, even though he lost, was going to bring his ranking up until the 15th with 1200 ranking points earned.
Some other lower-ranked players who performed outstandingly this year at Wimbledon don’t get the benefits and instead suffer huge drops.
For example, 28-year-old Liam Broady ranked number 5 in Great Britain, played into the 3rd round at Wimbledon for the first time this year after beating the 12th seed Diego Schwartzman. “I’m losing 45 points from last year. I think I’ll probably drop back now to 150 [in the world]” Broady said, ranked at 132. He posted in response to a tweet about Djokovic’s rank situation, “I am failing to see how this is punishing Wimbledon?”
Broady’s fellow British Cameron Norrie was upset about his own lost opportunity to rise to a career-high ranking. Still, he expressed sympathy, especially for lower-ranked players who have it even harder in the future. He played into the semifinals but was unfortunately defeated by Djokovic. Usually, he would have earned 720 ranking points, bringing him from 12th to 8th in the ATP rankings. “I think it’s disappointing for me. But for me, it changes absolutely nothing. I’m still going to be seeded highly and still going to be in every tournament. What’s really tough is the players just outside the top 100 and guys like Liam Broady, who made the third round, and Alastair Gray, who would now be in Slam qualies [qualification].” Norrie commented.
The decision to ban ranking points did not have any benefits whatsoever. Many players have played fantastically in Wimbledon 2022 but now end up with unfair rank drops. Nevertheless, the initial banning of Russian and Belarusian players mixing politics with sports contributed to the pointless and unhappy situation in the tennis world today.
Sources: https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/62099840
