Wimbledon paradox: Russia's Medvedev will almost certainly top the pecking order after Wimbledon
Wimbledon's decision not to award world ranking points does not go down well with players. Curious: Ironically, Russia's Daniil Medvedev can benefit from it.
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit: May 22, 2022, 08:42 pm
If a tennis pro has won Wimbledon in recent decades, he was often asked afterwards on the famous Center Court what this victory meant. The answer came promptly: Wimbledon is the tournament of tournaments, it's not primarily about prize money or points in the world rankings. A triumph on the holy lawn is for eternity, Wimbledon winners are lifelong.
In late June and early July, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club will experience exactly what the greatest champions have always proclaimed with a certain pathos: a tournament where, besides the winner's check, only honor matters. Not the pecking order in the leaderboard, defense, loss or gain of points. Because points will not be awarded in 2022 as a consequence of the unilateral exclusion of Russian and Belarusian professionals by the Wimbledon management - because of the war of aggression in Ukraine.
Since the player organizations ATP and WTA announced their decision on Friday evening, the already divided tennis world has been in turmoil. The quarrels are by no means as straightforward as the pithy statements of the parties involved suggest, in the ATP men's union alone several dozen players are said to have been against the decision of their own executive floor.
Djokovic loses 2,000 points
The ATP/WTA justification for the point boycott, that players from countries were unjustly punished for (war) decisions by their governments, now leads to a broad sporting distortion in the world rankings - and to a paradoxical result at the top. In all likelihood, after Wimbledon, the Russian Daniil Medvedev will lead the tennis hierarchy, one of the players who are not allowed to compete in Wimbledon. Because all players are deprived of the points they earned in the previous year after the classic lawn game and no new points are added, defending champion Novak Djokovic loses 2,000 points and presumably falls back to second place. Djokovic can't even prevent this with victories at the current French Open and in London.
Enraged professionals have already spoken out on social media over the weekend, such as the Hungarian Marton Fucsovics. He lamented that the pointless Wimbledon would drop him well out of the top 100 in the rankings. "Are you serious, ATP," he asked, adding sarcastically, "Thank you very much." Meanwhile, longtime Ukrainian top man Sergei Stakhovsky accused ATP, saying he never expected the organization "to work alongside killers and invaders”: “To say that I am disappointed would be an understatement.” His former colleague Alexander Alexander Dolgopolov saw the “Russian propaganda media” as the “true winner” of the affair: “They will exploit this with relish, again and again. In a statement on Friday, Wimbledon itself had once again emphasized that it was not ready to accept "that successes or participation would be used by the Russian government."
In any case, the ATP and WTA did not act particularly consistently in this crisis situation: Because in the British preparatory competitions for Wimbledon, which also banned professionals from Russia and Belarus, the usual ranking list points are awarded - with the stale justification that the players had alternative playing options in those weeks Disposal. Only very few players can exchange their intended tournament engagements at short notice.
The unanimity of the player organizations in the Wimbledon cause comes after the frightening turmoil in another affair: When the women's union WTA withdrew from the giant empire after the Chinese Peng Shuai went missing and canceled all tournaments in autumn 2022, the ATP men's troop joined in nothing to her Italian boss Andrea Gaudenzi apart from a few cheap words - although she is not nearly as dependent on the business activities in the autocratically governed country.