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As I’m sure you are fully aware, the ATP Finals are taking place in Turin this week. But since they won’t reach their conclusion until Sunday, November 20th, this means that any results from Turin aren’t counted on this week’s updates. With that said, Challenger events and other, lower-level events have been played that have caused some shifts. And just to clarify, despite popular belief, there were no rankings points available for the Next Gen Finals.
This tournament was concluded on November 12th, which meant that if points were available, they’d be included in the ATP rankings updates this week. But this isn’t actually the case, so you won’t see much movement relating to the guys who did well in that tournament. Nevertheless, points have been accumulated elsewhere, and points have dropped off for some guys going into the November 14th updates.
As usual, this is the information that I’d like to discuss right now.
Week Commencing November 14th – ATP Rankings Changes
Contents
Did you know that the ATP Finals is actually the last official ATP tournament of the year? This is quite different from the WTA Tour, where there are still some WTA-sanctioned events held after the main finals. With that said, many might also be aware that the Davis Cup is still played after the official ATP Finals. This is obviously a team event, and for that reason, players do not actually receive points for competing.
Then again, the tournament is still very much linked to national pride, which is why many top guys still compete in the event. Anyway, I think that’s enough information regarding the end-of-season cutoff concerning the ATP rankings. Therefore, let’s hone in on the actual ATP rankings changes this week.
Movement Inside the Top 10
Given that there were no ATP-sanctioned events taking place last week, there has been no movement inside the top 10 whatsoever. However, that will all change once we reach the conclusion of the ATP Finals in Turin this week. At the time of writing, the opening group games have been played for both sets of groups. And as you probably know, the players get points for each win in the group, as well as for the round that they reach in the tournament as a whole. But these points won’t be added until the next ATP rankings changes, which will occur on November 21st.
With this in mind, I can still give you a snapshot of how the top 10 currently looks. Despite his injury, Carlos Alcaraz is holding firm at the top of the tree, followed by fellow Spaniard, Rafael Nadal at number two. After Nadal, we have the Greek player, Stefanos Tsitsipas. And before I reveal the others, I’d like to point out something interesting regarding Nadal and Tsitsipas at the End of Year Finals. Before the tournament started, both guys had a chance of ending the year as the world number one.
Tsitsipas would need to win the ATP Finals without losing a match, which he has failed to do already by losing to Novak Djokovic yesterday. As for Nadal, he could have ended the year as the world number one by winning all of his group games and reaching the final. Unfortunately, he lost his opener to Taylor Fritz. Therefore, Alcaraz will definitely finish the season as the world’s best player.
With this noted, the remaining top 10 rankings are Ruud, Medvedev, Auger-Aliassime, Rublev, Djokovic, Fritz, and Rune. These guys hold spots 4-10, respectively.
The Week’s Biggest Climbers
There is one man that stands head and shoulders above the rest as the week’s biggest climber. That man is Marton Fucsovics, and he has enjoyed a leap of +12 spots following his victory at the Challenger event in Bratislava last week. In doing so he amassed +70 rankings points, which has taken him back inside the ATP’s top 100. Fucsovics is now ranked number 97 after this tournament victory. And to be honest, he deserves to be a top 100 player, if not much higher!
Elsewhere on the Challenger circuit, there was a significant success for the other biggest climber in the ATP rankings this week. Following on from Marton Fucsovics, we have Tomas Martin Etcheverry. This man made the finals of the Challenger event in Montevideo last week, before losing out to fellow Argentinian, Olivieri. In doing this, Echeverry has jumped by five spots in the rankings to his new place of number 80.
The Week’s Biggest Losers
Looking specifically at the top 100 rankings spots in the ATP, there is one guy who has plummeted at a much more extreme rate than the others. Unfortunately, it is Griekspoor once again who appears as the week’s biggest loser. If you recall, in last week’s ATP rankings updates Griekspoor had fallen by 11 spots to a ranking of number 81. However, he has backed this up with an even more dramatic fall down the ladder this week. He has dropped by 15 rankings places this week to a new low of 96.
And now, he is at serious risk of dropping out of the world’s top 100 depending on the remaining Challenger events for the 2022 season. Anyway, I won’t leave Griekspoor as the outcast concerning the week’s biggest losers. Following Griekspoor, the guy that has fallen the most places is Oscar Otte. The big German has lost 60 points over the last 7 days, which is enough to take him 8 places down the ladder to number 67.
Major Rankings Stories
I think of all the ATP rankings stories I could produce this week, the story surrounding Carlos Alcaraz has to take precedence over the rest. The fact that Nadal and Tsitsipas have lost their openers in Turin means that he has secured his first year-end number-one rankings. This is all the more amazing considering that he is only 19 years of age. And adding to this, he isn’t even competing at the End of Year Finals! So Carlos Alcaraz is quite literally on top of the world right now, despite his injury.
I have a sneaky feeling that this might be the first of many too – don’t you?
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