If you’ve ever watched tennis you probably know that the players are ranked, much like college sports. How do they get those rankings though? If you were curious enough to go to the website and look up the rankings you’ll find two different rankings. So what’s the difference in the two?
First of all the men and women are actually a part of two different groups. The men are a part of the Association of Tennis Professionals, or the ATP for short. The women compete in the Women’s Tennis Association, or the WTA. They both have two rankings that works the same way though, let’s take a look at the women’s rankings.
Players score points the same way in both rankings. The player scores points based on how far they reach in a tournament. The number of points also varies depending on how big an event it is. For example, at one of the Grand Slams the winner gets 1,000 points, the other finalist gets 700 and the other two semi-finalists get 450 points each. At a Tier I event (those are events with a $3,000,000 payout) the winner gets 500 points, the other finalist gets 350, and the other two semi-finalists get 225 points. At a Tier IV event ($145,000 payout) the winner only gets 140 points, the other finalist gets 100 points and the other two semi-finalists get 65 points.
The ranking that people most often go by is the WTA Ranking. Each woman’s ranking on the WTA Tour is a ranking that goes back a full year regardless of what time of the year is. It is currently the month of July so the current rankings take into consideration July of 2006 to 2007.
The ranking only takes 17 tournaments into consideration though so if a certain player has played 22 tournaments in the past year then their five worst performances will be dropped. That makes it beneficial to play in as many tournaments as possible.
The Race to the Sony Ericsson Championship is a little bit different. At the beginning of the new year everyone starts with no points and they gain points as they go along this season. So while the WTA Rankings take into consideration July 2006 to July 2007, the Race to the Sony Ericsson Championship only take into consideration January 2007 to July 2007. There is also no limit on how many tournaments go into your rankings in the Race to the Sony Ericsson Championship. If you played in 22 tournaments, you’ll get points for all 22 tournaments.
The WTA Rankings are usually the rankings that everybody goes by when they say so and so is ranked #1 in the world. The purpose of the Race to the Sony Ericsson Championship is a tournament at the end of the year. The eight players with the highest ranking will compete in a round robin tournament in November at the Madrid Arena in Madrid, Spain.
To get an idea of the difference let’s take a look at where different players stand in each of the rankings. A good example would be Amelie Maruesmo. Amelie Mauresmo is currently 8th in the WTA Rankings but only 12th in the Race to the Sony Ericsson Championship. There are several tournaments that factor into this but the main one is the U. S. Open. Last year at the U.S. Open, Amelie Mauresmo went to the Semi-Finals. Since the WTA rankings take into consideration the past year, that trip to the Semi-Finals helps her in the WTA Rankings. But so far in 2007 Amelie Mauresmo has not gone past the fourth round in the Grand Slams so her ranking in the Race to the Sony Ericsson is lower because it only takes 2007 into consideration.
Someone in a reverse situation would be both of the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena. Both Venus and Serena Williams have won a Grand Slam this year so they are pretty high on the Race to the Sony Ericsson Championship but neither one was doing very well at the end of last year so in the WTA Rankings, which takes the end of last year into consideration, Venus and Serena Williams are ranked lower.
Justine Henin currently leads both rankings on the women’s side. In the WTA Rankings Justine Henin has a pretty healthy 800-point lead over Maria Sharapova. In the Race to the Sony Ericsson Championship Jelena Jankovic is second in the rankings, partly because she has played more tournaments than anybody. Justine Henin still leads Jankovic by 250 points even though Justine Henin has played in nine less tournaments.
On the men’s side the ATP Rankings is equivalent to the WTA Rankings and the ATP Race is equivalent to the Race to the Sony Ericsson Championship. On the Men’s side, there is no surprise that Roger Federer is number one in the ATP Rankings. Rafael Nadal has competed in four more tournaments than Roger Federer in 2007 though, so Rafael Nadal leads Roger Federer in the ATP Race.
