ATP to use “22-month” ranking system when Tour resumes
The ATP announced Monday that it is to implement a revised “22-month” system to calculate its rankings when the Tour resumes in August.
The new system will mean players can pick their best 18 events over a 22-month period from March 2019 to December 2020.
Change was necessary due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced the cancellation of the Tours in March, with the rankings duly frozen on March 16. The ATP Tour is due to resume on August 14 with the Citi Open in Washington, with the US Open still scheduled, behind closed doors, for August 31-September 13.
In a statement on Monday, the ATP said the revised rankings were “designed to deliver a number of objectives”.
• Provide flexibility & fairness to players across all levels in parallel with the condensed number of points available as part of the revised provisional 2020 calendar.
• Provide stability for players who cannot or prefer not to compete in 2020 due to health & safety.
• Provide a system that can adapt to further changes in the calendar if necessary.
• Reward players who perform well following the resumption of the Tour in 2020.
• Retain the principle of defending tournament points week by week in 2021, maintaining player mobility in the rankings.
Players will only be able to count a tournament once in their best 18 events, even if they happen to have played it twice. Any points earned in 2020 will stay on the computer “for the following 52 weeks or until the event in question is played again in 2021, whichever comes first.”
The ATP said the revised rankings will also determine the eight singles qualifiers for the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals, which are still scheduled to be played in London’s O2 in November.
- Also read: ATP and WTA Tours to resume in August
