Earlier in May, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) had announced that it woll allocate ATP and WTA ranking points at ITF World Tennis Tour events. Players’ rankings would be updated once again, with points awarded retroactively for all tournaments dating back to August 2018. That day is finally upon us.
The Issue
The ITF, in a series of reforms, had announced that the advent of a dual ranking system. At the beginning of 2019, the new ATP, WTA, and ITF ranking systems were implemented. This led to some unlikely gainers, but the new system proved to be very detrimental for players ranked 350-600. The new reforms shrunk the ATP ranking list to only 679 men earlier in January.
With the new system, getting into ATP Challenger Tour events for lower-ranked players became much tougher. The Challenger events serve as an important link to the main tour and hence the issue didn’t go unnoticed. Many players voiced their opinions on the matter, clearly unhappy with the new system. Facebook groups were formed with prominent members and numerous petitions were chalked up to urge ITF to rectify the system.
Return To One Ranking System
Many wonder if the two separate ranking systems were at all required. When the ITF announced the reforms, it was mainly based on their research that only 350 men and 250 women are able to cover their costs financially out of a total pool of 14,000 players. While the underlying sentiment can’t be faulted, it’s still safe to say the reforms created more problems than it solved.
As of now, all rankings have been updated to include all ATP and WTA points that were relinquished to incorporate the reforms. The updated ranking points will be used for entry into ITF World Tennis Tour events, ATP Challenger Tour events, and the WTA 125K series from 26th August 2019. Many players have seen their rankings jump as a result and the total pool of players ranked by ATP and WTA hse also increased.
This officially marks the end of the so-called dual ranking system and the return to a singular ranking system.
