DECODED: The contrast in the ranking of World No. 26 Roger Federer and World No. 240 Serena Williams since absence from 2021 Wimbledon
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Roger Federer and Serena Williams
Former World No. 1 Roger Federer and Serena Williams both have been absent from the Tour ever since the 2021 Wimbledon Championships. While Federer lost in the quarter-finals of the Championships, Serena suffered an injury-withdrawal from the first round when she slipped and injured her leg. Federer was ranked 9th during the Championships while Serena was ranked 8th.
Having missed two Grand Slam events since then, the 2021 US Open and the 2022 Australian Open and multiple 1000-events as well, many would assume that the two greats of the sport would have dropped massively in the rankings on their respective Tours. However, that is not the case currently.
Roger Federer set to rise to World No. 26, Serena Williams currently World No. 240
With the 2022 Indian Wells recently concluding with Taylor Fritz winning the Men’s Singles and Iga Swiatek winning the Women’s singles, rankings saw another update. Roger saw his rank increase to World No. 26 while Serena saw her rank drop 4 more places to put the 23-time Grand Slam champion on the 240th spot.
Federer, on the other hand, became World No. 26 after the tournament ended with 1620 points to his name while Serena is currently on just 281 rankings points to her name. While the two players have been absent for the same duration, Federer’s place inside the Top-30 was guaranteed because of the different ranking system used by the ATP as compared to the WTA.
Different ranking system of ATP and WTA
With both the Tours following the rankings based on a 52-week timeframe, the biggest difference comes in the events that are capped for ranking points to be counted. The ATP has a tournament cap on 19 events, meaning a player has to play in 19 events including the 4 majors, 8 mandatory ATP-1000 events and 7 ‘Best Other’ events that are the events below the Masters tournaments.
The WTA however, has a different method. The tournament cap there is for 16 tournaments within the 52-week time-frame. Apart from the 4 majors, the Tour needs any 4 WTA-1000 events while the remaining 8 are the ‘Best Other’. This rule makes all the difference for Federer and Serena that sees such a massive contrast in the ranking of the two players who have not played since the same time.
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)