Tennis legend backs Alexander Zverev over his stand on the New Rankings System

Tennis legend backs Alexander Zverev over his stand on the New Rankings System

Alexander Zverev

A few days back, German tennis star Alexander Zverev was one of the first of many players to criticize the revised ATP ranking system, calling it a ‘disaster’. Zverev said that the current rules aren’t justly rewarding players for their performances over the last year.

Supporting Zverev, many start like Andrey Rublev and Denis Shapovalov came in support of Zverev and said that the COVID-19 affected ranking system wasn’t apt.

Martina Navratilova

Now, tennis legend Martina Navratilova has backed Alexander Zverev, calling the ranking system ‘stagnant’. Like Zverev, Navratilova also believes that the results of active players are not being suitably reflected in the rankings.

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Martina Navratilova says Alexander Zverev is right to complain about frozen rankings

Alexander Zverev
Alexander Zverev

The ATP decided to freeze the rankings in March 2020 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. When the tour resumed in August, players were allowed to retain their ranking points from tournaments held in 2019 – irrespective of how they performed in 2020.

While speaking in a conference call for Tennis Channel, Martina Navratilova expressed her thoughts on the same and agreed with the German. 

“I agree with Sascha,” Navratilova said.

“It’s too stagnant, perhaps not a true ranking. In my head, I’m thinking, this player is ranked, so-and-so. I look at the rankings, and they’re not. It’s almost a two-year rolling thing.”

“I agree, maybe they need to take another look at it and compare the two rankings,” the legend said.

“If you take the tournaments that people have played since August, see what that would come out to, compared to what it is now, try to find a happy medium somewhere there or cut it out and just make it whatever everybody has played.”

On tour, Alexander Zverev won the Mexican Open in Acapulco by getting the better of Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final.

Also read: Juan Martin del Potro wants to return to tennis courts and retire on his own terms