Understanding the ATP Ranking

[PaulHp]

I'm beginning to like and follow tennis, I would like to clear a doubt about the ATP rankings, more specifically in the points distribution. Rafael Nadal last week was with 5405 points, with the possibility of dropping 250 (Stuttgart ATP 250 Series - 2015). Once he did not participate this year, why this week he is with 5335 points instead of 5155?
Thanks

 

[Moxie]

Hi, Paul, and welcome! I'll be honest, I tried to figure it out, and I can't. @herios is probably the one who can. If you look at last week's ranking from the ATP site here:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/rankings/singles?rankDate=2016-06-06
you see a category "Next Best," which for Nadal is 180. The difference in between 250 and 180 is 70, so if you take 70 off, you get 5335. But I don't understand what "Next Best" reflects. It's not his Queens results or Wimbledon ones. Good question!

 

[Billie]

Welcome PaulHp. I usually wait for official rankings every Monday to see instead of troubling my brain with it.

As I understand it the rankings are on 52-week schedule so the points drop after a full year of being earned.

 

[britbox]

Hey @PaulHp - interesting post, so I checked it out and the best answer I got was:

"An ATP ranking is determined by your "best 18" events subject to a bunch of rules. That means that it's possible there are events that you've earned points for but doesn't count to the best 18 (since your best 18 are better than these points). However, they can count if points drop off and one of the events that didn't count can now count. "

@herios is our rankings expert and could maybe provide more info, but I think Nadal's points dipped into a comp outside of his original 18.

 

[britbox]

A guy on Reddit gave me this explanation.

Roughly speaking, the ATP only counts your 18 best results. For a top player, you have to count Slams, Masters 1000 results (except Monte Carlo, and those you're exempt from), and presumably the WTF if you qualify.

After that, they take your 6 best results from ATP 500 and below. If you've played more than 6 of these events, than if you have a bad result, another result would count. Say, you played Halle last year, but you also played Atlanta. Atlanta was your 7th best result but because you didn't play Halle this year, you get a 0. Then, Atlanta can be used (because it's now in your top 6 events).

Hope that helps.

Oh the reason they use top 18 is to prevent players from playing a lot of tournaments and keep piling up the points. Don't know if it's a great reason, but probably keeps players potentially a bit healthier (some still play a lot anyway).

The rules are a bit different if you're ranked below 30 (e.g., Masters 1000 results don't have to count if you don't get into the draw).

 

[Moxie]

Thanks, BB. I knew it had to be something similar, and I think the "Next Best" category on the ATP website that I mentioned has to do with that. As I said, the math adds up to the mystery number @PaulHp was wondering about. Seems that rather than take off the 250, they can take off the lesser result and he gets to keep more ranking points. I think there is also some rule about how many 250s you can count.

I wonder if the rules have changed since Davydenko was a top-10 player. I remember he used to buff up his rankings by playing tournaments that the other top guys didn't play. Of course, he was very solid, fit and with real gifts, but there was a time that I found his being at #3, for example, (around 2006-07) to be surprising, since he didn't feature as much at the bigger tournaments. That could also be just my own inattention to him.

 

[PaulHp]

Thank you guys, your answers were very helpful! Like BB said, there are a bunch of rules but I think I did understand the basics.
After a little research I'd like to post some more information:

"The year-end Emirates ATP Rankings is based on calculating, for each player, his total points from the four (4) Grand Slams, the eight (8) mandatory ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments and the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals of the ranking period, and his best six (6) results from all ATP World Tour 500, ATP World Tour 250, ATP Challenger Tour and Futures tournaments"

If you look at the page Ranking breakdown of the player, it will have the information about all countable events and points earned and the list of non-countable events (which can be countable as next best depending on the dropping points of the player in the week)

For example,
Kei Nishikori was in the SF of Halle Open last year. If this year he had been defeat in the R32, instead of dropping 180 points he would drop 135 because Brisbane Open would enter as one of his best tournaments (Next Best 45 points) and Halle would be a non-countable event for him. But he was defeat in the R16, same points of his next best.

Like Billie said I wont trouble my brain with it, I will wait for the official rankings on Mondays, but I did wanted to understand at least once.

I think that will be it. Thank you again!

 

[PaulHp]

Here is Kei Nishikori Ranking Breakdown for this week...Just for curiosity:

 

[britbox]

What website do you get that from Paul?

 

[PaulHp]

What website do you get that from Paul?

I got in the ATP World Tour website. Just the Accumulated points I did myself.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/players/kei-nishikori/n552/rankings-breakdown