The pandemic has not only forced tennis players to live in a bubble of hotels, training sessions and games, with a maximum of one or two companions. The ATP decided to freeze the ‘ranking’ in March 2020, a highly questioned system and that, with nuances, will continue at least until August, which favors those who are playing less and had a good level two years ago and hurts those who have shone between the second half of 2020 and the first of this 2021.
This is the clear case of the malagueño Alejandro Davidovich. Among the first in the world, it is the second that is least benefited by the current system. In fact, although the week started on the 46th, now it would be the 27thº (19 places higher) and I would have a ticket to the Tokyo Games Had there been no pandemic or changes in the formula used, although this always implies speaking on a hypothetical level, because perhaps the strategy of many tennis players would have changed, without so many renouncing to participate in tournaments.
Among the first world rackets (and according to the calculation made from the Twitter user @ Charl1e505), only the British Cameron Norrie, who would be twenty places higher, would be worse off than Davidovich. The reality is that, for example, legends like Roger Federer, who has played three games since the pandemic, would be hundreds of places lower. “I know it should be the 800th,” he admitted days ago in Geneva. Others like Goffin, Monfils, Wawrinka, Coric o Fognini They would not appear in the ‘top 30’ either, some of them affected by injuries. The initial idea was to reduce travel around the world with the pandemic, but it has been distorted. What’s more, From last March to August 9, the ‘ranking’ froze: 50% of the points are counted.
It should be remembered that every tournament (there are five levels of importance) score one way, as well as each round. In each week of the year the tennis player defends a figure achieved the previous year on the same date, and according to that he can win or lose points. There is also a figure of best tournament results per year (18) to establish the tally. Davidovich, without having reached the highest level in 2019 (except for a few semifinals in Estoril) exploded on the return of the pandemic: eighths at the US Open, semifinals in Cologne, quarterfinals in the Masters 1,000 and Monte Carlo, other semifinals in Estoril. .
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