ATP World Ranking: Novak Djokovic's record hunt also suspended
The world rankings were frozen in the corona crisis until the tennis restart - ATP had already announced this in March. Now it is clear: There will also be effects on the record books.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Apr 15, 2020, 08:48 am
"Freezing the world rankings also applies to other areas, as you can see on the official website ," said the ATP in a statement to the French sports newspaper L'Equipe .
In terms of time at the top of the world rankings, Roger Federer leads with 310 weeks ahead of Pete Sampras (286 weeks), Novak Djokovic (282 weeks), Ivan Lendl (270 weeks), Jimmy Connors (268 weeks) and Rafael Nadal (209 weeks).
The "sufferer" of this decision is Novak Djokovic , who is currently in the top position without his weeks counting for the record books. Djokovic could have replaced his opponent Federer in October 2020 under normal circumstances (if he had stayed first) in most weeks in first place.
Brad Gilbert sees it differently
Most of the ATP's decision was taken as logical. "If an element of the ranking is frozen, everything has to be frozen - period," ex-Sharapova coach Sven Groeneveld tweeted. Ex-WTA number 1, Tracy Austin, argued similarly. A comparison with the end of the year, where no tournaments would be played, does not fit - this is not an off-season.
There was criticism from Brad Gilbert. The weeks at the top should count for Djokovic. Gilbert's argument: only one player, namely Rafael Nadal, would have had the opportunity to oust Djokovic from the top in Indian Wells or Miami. However, this would have been unlikely, Djokovic lost early in 2019 and Nadal reached the semi-finals in Indian Wells. It was more likely that Djokovic would have expanded his leadership. Gilbert's approach: All points should gradually drop out (in theory). Djokovic had completely dominated the year to date, he would have stayed first until all points had been deducted.
WTA follows suit
The "record weeks" will also be suspended for women, as the WTA announced . Ashleigh Barty is currently leading the world rankings there.