RANKINGS FURORE SURROUNDS FEDERER AND DJOKOVIC

Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic share a combined 591 weeks at the top of the ATP Tour with Federer holding 310 weeks at World No.1 with his Serbian counterpart third on the all time list on 281.

However, a debate has begun around Djokovic’s number and whether the current freeze of the rankings should count for Djokovic’s total weeks at the pinnacle of the ATP mountain. Two words, it shouldn’t.

Yes there is sentiment shared among many that Djokovic has earned his right to add to his total while the Covid-19 ban continues until June and they are correct, but, how is it for to any of the other players that participate not to have the option to fight for the place.

Djokovic did not have many points to defend throughout the Sunshine Double in Indian Wells and Miami, and could have capitalised on his lead in the rankings thoroughly. He quite possibly may have gained an extra 1,865 points through the period after early exits in 2019.

This would almost certainly guaranteed his status at the top until the end of April at least, but on the flip side, what if he lost early again and couldn’t make up the points and Rafael Nadal won the Sunshine Double? He is only 370 points behind Djokovic.

The Spaniard himself may have gained 1,640 points from the period as an injury saw him pull out before his Indian Wells semifinal against Federer before withdrawing from Miami altogether.

Moving to April, the 19 time Grand Slam champion had a disappointing clay court swing by his standards, only claiming one title at the Masters 1000 in Rome before a twelfth title at Roland Garros later that month.

It has almost been a foregone conclusion that Nadal at least wins Monte Carlo and Barcelona to begin the European clay court swing, but in 2019 he fell in the semifinals of both to Fabio Fognini and Domenic Thiem respectively.

Any sane tennis pundit would have considered Nadal the favourite to make up these points again in 2020 so who’s to say Nadal would not have been the top seed at Roland Garros in 2020.

Even a player like Thiem, Daniil Medvedev or Stefanos Tsitsipas could possibly have gone on streaks that gave them a chance to fight for top spot, we will never know.

There is a reason that the rankings have been ‘frozen’, meaning from the top to the bottom, the order does not change and will remain that way until the resumption of play on the grass courts of Europe in June at the absolute earliest.

It is common sense, Djokovic’s total number weeks at No.1 must remain the same until players return to the courts because under these circumstances we are unable to see how the rankings would look if the season was played to schedule.

If Federer is able to maintain his spot at No.4 during this rankings freeze despite having surgery and being scheduled to miss all tour events until June, then shouldn’t the ATP freeze everything?

It is unfair that the Swiss’ record could be broken when there has been absolutely no play, it cannot happen, especially with Nadal so close to gaining more weeks for himself.