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For the last seven days, the only competitive tennis played besides Challenger events was the Davis Cup qualifiers. However, since Challenger events still carry points that link directly to the ATP rankings, we’ve still seen a bit of movement inside the top 100 this week. Naturally, there hasn’t been massive movement when looking at the ATP top 50, and that’s because most of the top guys haven’t competed over the past week – unless playing in the Davis Cup qualifiers.
Yet to stress once again, since there were quite a few Challenger events played and completed last week. This has caused a shift in the rankings for many guys outside of the top 50. And since I’m providing an ATP rankings update following the release of the new rankings for February 6th, I’ve got a fair bit to share with you today. So let me start by looking into the more positive category – the ATP risers this week.
ATP Rankings Updates – Week Commencing February 6th
Contents
I’ve stressed above that I’ll start this run-through by discussing the climbers of the week. However, if this is your first time checking out my ATP rankings update series, I can tell you that you are about to discover three things. The first relates to the risers of the week, the second relates to the fallers of the week, and finally – I’ll cover the top rankings story of the week at the very end.
So, excited to see who has moved up and down for this latest rankings update? Keep reading for the full scoop.
The Week’s Biggest Climbers – Points Racked Up for Safiullin, Wu, and Pospisil
Many people believe that the Challenger Tour carries less prestige and therefore less importance than tournaments that are ATP graded. While yes, the points available are not as high as the points assigned to tournaments from the 250-level up, Challenger events are still very important. In fact, many top guys will sometimes drop down and play Challenger events just for competitive purposes, regardless of the points available. Yet some play because their ranking is not high enough to play ATP-level events.
With that cleared up, I can tell you that there are three guys who have surged up in the rankings over the last seven days for their performances in challenger events. As listed above, these three guys are Pospisil, Wu, and Safiullin. All of these three guys played in Challenger events over the last seven days, and Safiullin actually won the Challenger event in Germany. In fact, he beat Vasek Pospisil in the final, which made him the official climber of the week by jumping 18 spots.
This took him from 100 to 82 in the rankings, and this event also took Pospisil back into the top 100 since he jumped 13 spots. He is now ranked 100 – just behind the third guy mentioned above, Yibing Wu. This man made the final of the Challenger tournament played in Cleveland, USA, last week. In doing so, he has gained 50 points, which has resulted in a rankings leap of 15 spots to number 97.
The Week’s Biggest Fallers – Disaster for Bublik, Krajinovic, and Ramos-Vinolas
Whenever there is a winner in the world of tennis, there is always a loser. That’s just the nature of the beast, and for the February 6th update, it’s not looking too good for the three guys I’ve mentioned above. At 35 years of age, Ramos-Vinolas has slipped down the rankings ladder by 17 spots, making him the main ‘faller of the week’. He is now ranked 54 in the world due to the loss of 230 points in the last seven days. And as it happens, this 230-point loss was matched by another player, Alexander Bublik.
Due to this drop in points, Bublik fell by 14 places to reach a new position of number 50. For a guy that is so talented too, it’s not unfair to say that Bublik is underperforming at the minute. Yet between these two guys, the other player who has suffered a rather large, double-digit drop is Filip Krajinovic. The Serbian player lost just 90 points over the previous seven days, yet this is enough to take him from 56 in the rankings to 71. This shows a drop of 15 places, putting him in 2nd place in terms of the biggest drop of the week inside the ATP’s top 100.
With this said, there were two other players who also endured a double-digit move in the wrong direction. These two players are Mikael Ymer and Emil Ruusuvuori, demonstrating 13 and 10-place drops, respectively.
Top Rankings Stories – USA Now Occupies 20% Of the ATP’s Top 50
I’ve chosen to go with an overall view of the rankings this week for the top story rather than pick an individual from the bunch. And as you can see, due to the recent update of the ATP rankings as of February 6th, 2023, there are now 10 Americans ranked inside the top 50. For me, this shows that American tennis is once again in a position where they are starting to dominate from an overall perspective. And when you look at the rankings, we can see that the top-ranked American is Taylor Fritz at number 8.
But beyond Fritz at the top, we can see that the 10th-ranked American inside the top 50 is Brandon Nakashima – taking the 46th spot in the rankings. Personally, I cannot remember a period in recent times where American tennis was looking so promising. And within this group of players, you’ve got other huge talents in the form of Frances Tiafoe (14), Tommy Paul (19), Sebastian Korda (26), as well as Jenson Brooksby (36). All of these guys are under 25 years of age, which shows that the future is very bright indeed for American tennis.
And finally, I have to mention Ben Shelton (41). At 20 years of age, Shelton is on the brink of breaking into the top 40, and I will certainly be tracking the progression of this guy over the coming months.
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