rankings

Tennis rankings come in all shapes and sizes, from the professional tours (ATP and WTA) to national or country-specific rankings (USTA) and on down to sectional rankings (USTA New England, for example) and local (state or region).

Here we will discuss what the rankings mean, how to make sense of them, and what you need to know in pursuing your highest ranking ever.

The Professionals

Official sports rankings usually fall between two categories — cosmetic popularity contests overvalued by everyone (college football and college basketball) and meaningless math formulas ignored by all (FIFA). On the other side of the spectrum is tennis, which has the only rankings in sports that both accurately identifies an athlete’s current level of play while providing the practical benefits of seeding players in tournaments and helping set the field.

How do they work? What are their merits? Their disadvantages? Their quirks? This helpful FAQ will help provide insight into the highly organized chaos that are the ATP and WTA rankings.

Points are earned at every tournament during a 52-week stretch, the amount of which are determined by how far players advance in said event. The deeper a player goes into a tourney, the more points that are up for grabs. And the bigger a tournament, the more available points.

The ATP has four tiers of events – Grand Slams, Masters 1000, ATP 500 and ATP 250. At a Grand Slam, a winner receivers 2,000 points. The runner-up receives 1,200. Semifinalists get 720 and quarterfinalists receive 360. A fourth-round run nets 180, getting to the third round is good for 90 and making the second round brings 45. Players receive 10 points for simply being in the field.

The eight Masters 1000 events use the same totals, just cut in half. The ATP 500 cuts that number in half, while the ATP 250 does the same. (The numbers in each tournament category represent how many points the winner receives.)

At the end of every year, the rolling rankings catch up to the season so that only the current-year events are included in the year-end rankings, which is what makes them the best barometer of a player’s performance from the calendar year.

National and Amateur Rankings (USTA)

Sectional Rankings (USTA New England)