What Happens to the ATP Rankings During the Coronavirus-Led Tournament Suspensions?

The ATP has cancelled tennis tournaments for six weeks till April 27 and the big question now is what happens to the men’s player rankings for this time-frame (and beyond if things unfortunately don’t resume even after this current suspension)?

Good to Understand how the ATP Ranking system operates.

Players win points at every round of every tournament they participate in which begs the question what is the issue if nobody is playing anyway. The catch is these points are won on a rolling basis; i.e. only the points from the previous 12 months are considered.

The implication of this is huge. A player who has done well in the previous edition of the Indian Wells Masters, for instance, loses all those points he has earned last year but adds zero points this year because that tournament is cancelled. So he loses all those points from his current ranking points while another player who had not as well last Indian Wells Open, loses lesser points.

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A practical example then?

The current world number 30, Milos Raonic was the semifinalist at the 2019 edition of the Indian Wells Open, earning 360 points in the process.

Now look at performances of some of the players currently ranked below Raonic on the ATP Rankings. Kei Nishikori, Filip Krajinovic, Borna Coric, Jan-Lennard Struff, Guido Pella, Casper Ruud and Marin Cilic are the next seven players on the ATP Rankings, all of whom were knocked out of the previous Indian Wells Masters in the third round or earlier except Krajinovic who made the fourth round.

Now, with the Indian Wells Masters cancelled, Raonic stands to lose 360 points from the previous edition, which will take his ranking points from 1350 to 990.

On the other hand, since none of these other players did too well last season, they would be losing anywhere between 8 to 90 points from their current tally (points which they had earned last Indian Wells). This will still keep them at around 1250 points apiece, way higher than Raonic’s 990.

Hence, for no fault of Raonic, he would tumble down the ATP Rankings charts.

So what is the ATP going to do about the loss of ATP Ranking points?

For starters, they have announced they recognise there is an obvious ATP Ranking problem here. However, they are yet to take a call on how to proceed from here on, a decision which will they are expected to take soon.

In the statement announcing the cancellation of the ATP tournaments for the next six weeks, they also said:

“The ATP is carefully reviewing the broad impact of this evolving situation related to FedEx ATP Rankings points, and any decisions will be announced in due course. In addition, in full collaboration with the ITF, FedEx ATP Rankings points will not be available at any ITF World Tennis Tour events during the suspension period.”