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The last time Roger Federer stood in front of an audience on a tennis court at the Match for Africa in South Africa was in February. Bild: AP
Because the world rankings have been frozen, Federer is one of the favorites at the Australian Open.
Although he has not played a match for ten months, Roger Federer finished the tennis season in fifth place in the world rankings. The 39-year-old Swiss is the beneficiary of frozen world rankings.
There are no real winners in the crown pandemic, not even in tennis, which has been playing again since the summer, but with almost no spectators. Sunday ended the season with the final of the eight best of the year at the O2 Arena in London. In a room that could hold up to 17,500 spectators and whose acoustics are unmatched because it was originally designed for concerts. In the high-level final, Russian Daniil Medvedev (ATP 4) beat Austrian Dominic Thiem (ATP 3) to claim his most important title to date. So he did not burst into jubilation. “Not partying is my thing,” he said.
Medvedev is the man of the moment and surpassed Roger Federer in the world rankings with the victories of the tournament in Paris-Bercy and now in London. The Swiss finished his tournament year and reached the Australian Open semi-finals in January, where he was defeated by eventual winner Novak Djokovic in fifth place. Even before Alexander Zverev, who like Federer was in the semifinals in Melbourne, reached the final at the US Open and Paris-Bercy and was able to win two tournaments in Cologne. Even before Russian Andrei Rublew, who won the most tournaments (5) in 2020 and had the most wins (as Djokovic 41).
Andrei Rublew is something of the player of the year. Image: keystone
Protection for well-ranked players
Federer benefits from the fact that the ATP professional organization decided in April to freeze the world rankings. Since then, the rule has been that the 18 best results of the period between March 2019 and March 2020 are applied. Before that, points were no longer valued after 52 weeks maximum, now this happens after two years at most. So, de facto, a world ranking was introduced that takes into account the best results of two years. A solution that Rafael Nadal has been promoting for years and that has allowed him to renounce the US Open as this year’s defending champion without losing 2,000 points.
Rafael Nadal was in the ATP Finals, but he did it without the US Open. Image: keystone
However, the rule has a catch: the 18 results that are included in the ranking must have been collected from 18 different tournaments. That means: if you did worse than last year in those tournaments that could still take place this year, the result of the previous year will remain in the rankings. Specifically, this means that no player has fewer points in the rankings at the end of the year than on March 16, when the world rankings were frozen. On the one hand, the new regulation rewards players who have been successful in this particular year (such as Andrei Rublew), on the other hand, it protects those who are higher ranked.
What the ATP world ranking would be like if only the 2020 results were taken into account. screenshot: openerarankings.com
Italian Musetti and Sinner as big losers
The biggest beneficiary is Roger Federer, who had to undergo knee surgery in January and summer and wants to return to the tennis circus at the Australian Open in January. Last year he reached the Wimbledon final (1,200 points), the French Open semi-finals (720 points) and the US Open quarterfinals (360 points). The 1000 points he received for his victory in Miami in 2019 and the 600 points for the final in Indian Wells also remained in the ranking. The same goes for the tournament wins in Halle and the Swiss Indoors Basel, which is about to be canceled, which earned him 500 points each and the 400 points for the two group victories in the 2019 ATP Finals.
In the adjusted world ranking, which only takes into account this year’s results, Federer would be ranked 28th. After taking a break for six months starting in 2016, he dropped to 17th place before celebrating his 18th Grand Slam victory at the 2017 Australian Open. Also among the beneficiaries are Italian Matteo Berrettini (ATP 10), who is ranked 38th in the annual ranking, and Nick Kyrgios (ATP 45 instead of 90).
The biggest loser is the Italian Lorenzo Musetti (ATP 127), who is 66 places lower in the world ranking, in the annual ranking he is ranked 61. The same applies to his compatriot Jannik Sinner (ATP 37 instead of 20) , and South African Kevin Anderson (ATP 81 instead of 50). Stan Wawrinka finished the year in 18th place (+1 compared to the annual ranking).
