ATP Delray Beach: Hurkacz's Path to Victory - A Plea for Bonus Points
Hubert Hurkacz did not beat a single player with a double-digit world ranking on his way to victory at the ATP Tour 250 tournament in Delray Beach. Good for the Pole. But is it also fair?
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Jan 14, 2021, 02:25 pm
Hubert Hurkacz is not to be blamed: The Pole mastered all the tasks he was given at the ATP Tour250 tournament in Delray Beach. The last in the final against Sebastian Korda , which Hurkacz won with 6: 3 and 6: 3. In his four matches, however, the eventual tournament winner did not have to deal with competition from the top drawer of the ATP charts: Hurkacz defeated the numbers 115 (Daniel Elahi Galan), 293 (Roberto Quiroz), 789 (Christian Harrison) and with Korda is number 119.
The 250 points for his second individual title on the ATP tour to Winston Salem 2019 are warmly granted to Hurkacz. Nevertheless, there have been far more difficult paths to tournament victories. For which only 250 counters were distributed. Resourceful tennis experts have referred to Grigor Dimitrov's run for the title in Brisbane 2017 on Twitter. The Bulgarian won in turn against Steve Johnson (ATP number 33), Nicolas Mahut (39), Dominic Thiem (8), Milos Raonic (3) and Kei Nishikori (5).
Victory against Tsitsipas at the ATP Cup is worth more
Apart from the fact that these opponents were significantly higher in the rankings than those of Hurkacz in Delray Beach, Dimitrov jn Brisbane had to contest one more match. For the same point reward.
Wouldn't it be fairer if the ATP reintroduced bonus points, that is, rewarded victories against opponents who are high in the ATP world rankings with additional counters? A similar approach has already been chosen for the ATP Cup. Rightly so, because a win against top ten man Stefanos Tsitsipas cannot be rated as highly as a success against the Greek number two Michail Pervolarakis, who is listed above the top 400 players in the world.
In addition to the bonus for the winners, bonus points could also have another effect: namely an increased level of concentration for the better-ranked players. If an opponent were credited 50 additional points for a success against a man from the top ten in the world (or even 100 against the number one!), Then this would perhaps ensure that many a quarter-final defeat at an ATP Tour 500 Tournament is not accepted quite as emotionlessly as by selected professionals in recent years.