Jürgen Melzer at "Kasi live" - Daniil Medvedev as a sticking point
What to do with the ATP world rankings? Jürgen Melzer described in the Instagram chat with Christopher Kas in our “ tennisnetnews ” account the considerations that are currently being discussed in the ATP player council.
by tennisnet.com
last edit:
Mar 31, 2020, 05:42 pm
Daniil Medvedev played a remarkable second half of the 2019 season: starting with the ATP Tour 500 tournament in Washington, the Russian stood in six consecutive events, at least in the final, winning the titles at the 1000s in Cincinnati (in the final against David Goffin ) and Shanghai (with the final victory over Alexander Zverev ), in between also the home tournament in St. Petersburg, where Medvedev won against Borna Coric in the final.
A total of 4,350 points for the ATP world ranking were included in the Medvedev ranking from Washington via Montreal, Cincinnati, the US Open, St. Petersburg and Shanghai. From currently 5,890. The pressure on the current number five in the world to defend these points would be enormous if the ATP matches resumed from Washington.
Djokovic chases Federer
Jürgen Melzer sees that as a member of the ATP Players' Council. In an Instagram talk with Christopher Kas ("Kasi Live", daily from 6 p.m. on " tennisnetnews ") Melzer Medvedev cited as an outstanding example of why ATP is so concerned about the handling of points in the ATP charts. Freezing, according to the Austrian veteran, is one of the options. But far from the only one. After all, Medvedev would have to defend his points (Melzer assumed in his example that the tour would make a comeback the week before Washington), while others kept their counters won in 2019 without a fight.
After all, placing in the world rankings is essential for almost all players: Novak Djokovic , the current number one, is about setting the record of Roger Federer , who held the top position for 310 weeks. Djokovic is currently 282 weeks. For the players behind it, the placement in the rankings is related to possible settlements in tournaments - Dominic Thiem, for example, was overtaken by Daniil Medvedev before the Australian Open, and was number five in the first major in 2020. And met Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals. Fourth on the seed list, Thiem could only have met the Spaniard in the semifinals (and, as happened, beat).
Lajovic benefits
However, the chart placement is particularly important for the professionals from about 50th rank. For these professionals, it is a question of whether or not they come directly into a main field of an ATP tournament. So if a player showed good tennis around spring 2019 and was allowed to carry his points along (Dusan Lajovic, for example, scored 735 points in Monte Carlo, Miami and the French Open last year - almost half of his total 1,695 that went into the ranking), this would of course be an advantage over those professionals who only played in shape after mid-2019.
ATP is currently looking for the ideal solution in numerous video conferences. Jürgen Melzer is right in the middle.