The ATP suspended its tennis season until June 7 this year in the wake of coronavirus outbreak
The outbreak of the pandemic coronavirus has affected almost all the games, with many suspending matches until further notice and it’s no different with tennis, having suspended the season.
In the wake of the rising virus fears, the ATP had last week issued a joint statement with the WTA that all the matches will remain suspended at least until June 7.
This could mean that the clay-court swing of this year’s calendar, leaving out the French Open that has been postponed, will be suspended until the games resume in June.
With concerns remaining as to how the suspension could affect the players’ rankings, the ATP had come up with another statement.
They decided to freeze the rankings until the suspension of the Tour ends. Having taken such a decision, now let’s take a look at the five male players, who will be aided by the late start to the season.
Swiss maestro Roger Federer will be the one to benefit the most out of the current situation as he was not going to make a comeback until the grass-court season.
Currently out and recovering from a right-knee surgery, Federer would have been the most affected had it not been for the suspension of the Tour.
Federer would have lost a total of 3180 points (champion in Dubai and Miami, Indian Wells finalist, French Open semis and quarters in Madrid and Rome) that he accumulated the same time last year.
This could have seen him drop to eighth or ninth from his current No.4 position at the start of the grass-court season when he had decided to return. However, with the rankings frozen and Tour suspended until further notice, Federer will be the one to benefit the most out of this.
Another player to benefit from the suspension and ranking freeze is Spaniard Rafael Nadal. The King of Clay was at his usual last year, displaying his dominance in clay-court gaining 3900 points from them alone last year.
So, if not for the freezing of rankings, the World No.2 would have lost a couple of points more than Federer which would have increased the gap between him and World No.1 Novak Djokovic.
The Serb meanwhile would have only lost 2510 points that he bagged last year through his performances from Miami to the French Open in 2019. Nadal now, however, will be on the gain as only 370 points separate the two, putting him in a good spot to fight for the top spot when Tour resumes.
The Austrian World No.3 would have lost 3080 points had it not been for the rank freeze. He had an excellent clay-court season last time around emerging runner-up at the French Open and winning the titles at Indian Wells and Barcelona.
Now with none of that happening anymore, the reigning Australian Open runner-up could hold on to his third spot.
The current World No.1 had a superb start to this season that has helped him gain the top spot pushing Nadal to the second.
However, the suspension and the rank freeze would not be of help as he did not have much of a good time this time last year.
He earned only 315 points from Indian Wells, Miami Open and Monte-Carlo Masters last time which would much affect his top-spot, neither will it aid him in any way.
The ATP rankings freeze means Russian Daniil Medvedev will retain the 795 points from his last year’s performance in Sunshine Double, Monte-Carlo, and Barcelona.
He will remain the World No.5 with 5,890 points once the tour resumes. However, once it resumes, he has a shot at overthrowing Federer, who is in the fourth place and just 65 points ahead of him.
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