Can someone explain the ATP ranking system?

Question

What exactly does it mean when they say a certain player has "points to defend?" Roger Federer, who lost twice recently, also lost 1,000 ranking points. Nadal, who won Indian Wells and got to the Quarters in Miami gained around 400 points. I am confused how this works

Answer 1

The ranking system is created to award championship winners with a certain amount of points. If you lose a game, you NEVER lose any points, you just don't gain any, or you don't gain as much. For example, if someone lost a final match, they would still get points, but not as many as the winner of the match would. Roger Federer never lost 1,000 points even though he lost twice recently. All these losses just gave him very few points towards his ranking. As far as I know, only the four Grand Slams give you 1,000 for winning the championship, while all the other ATP Master Series events give the winner no more than probably 400-500 points.
You might want to check out atptennis.com, I'm sure they have a pretty detailed description of their ranking system.

Answer 2

i'm not 100% certain about the specifics of the rankings, but i believe everything is reduced to a points equation.

in other words, if you win a tournament, you get a certain number of points, if you get to a finals and lose, you get points, but fewer of them.

the atp rankings are pure numbers rankings - which means that if you take a break and stop playing you stop getting any points at all.

this is a problem i think as it means that tennis is the only sport with a 12 month season and players who are very young seem to burn out when they still have the ability to play at a very high level.

the lifespan of an average player on the tour is seven years.
if they many of them are starting this cycle when they are still in their teens, it means that most players 'retire' before their 30th birthday.

i think this is a great shame and bad for the sport...

Answer 3

The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) was formed in 1972 to protect the interests of male professional Tennis players.you should read this page you will get all of your answer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Tennis_Professionals#ATP_Entry_Ranking_points_distribution