There is big news on the ATP as finally the new ranking system has been announced. With the Coronavirus pandemic, a big chunk of the 2020 season has been canceled and there could be problems in the future for some players to reach some destinations to take part in events because of the current travel restrictions. In addition, some players do not seem comfortable with playing some tournaments like the upcoming US Open.
The 22-month ranking system
The ranking system is usually based on a 12-month rolling framework. However, the new rankings will follow a 22-month ranking system. Therefore, the players will have the opportunity to choose the best 18 results achieved between March 2019 and December 2020.
This the key parts of the ATP statement
“A player’s ranking will be comprised of his “Best 18” results between March 2019 and December 2020.
A player cannot count the same Tour-level tournament twice in his “Best 18″ breakdown. For example, a player who played the Mutua Madrid Open in 2019 and plays Madrid again in 2020, will count the better of those two results.
Tour-level tournament points added in 2020 that count in a player’s Ranking Breakdown will remain on a player’s ranking for 52 weeks, or until the event in question is played again in 2021, whichever comes first.”
Who will play the US Open?
After the disclosure of the new ATP ranking system is now not clear who is going to compete in New York on the occasion of the US Open. Players like Popyrin have already announced that they are not going to compete in New York if rankings are frozen (as it happened).
Nadal
It is going to be interesting what is going to happen with Rafael Nadal. In fact, the Spaniard already announced that he wasn’t happy to defend his title in New York with the current conditions. Since Rafa is now sure that he won’t lose the 2000 points that he conquered last year after winning the American major, it is more and more plausible that he won’t travel to New York this year.