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From Swiatek to Medvedev: Who are the top-ranked players taking part in World Tennis League 2024?

best tennis players 2024

His runner-up finish in Melbourne also gave him records for the most sets played at a Grand Slam tournament (31) and the most time spent on court (24 hours 17 minutes). An avid gamer, Medvedev has partnerships with HyperX gaming headsets and game makers EA Sports and Ubisoft, and he joined the ownership group of esports organization M80 last year. Since turning pro in 2003, Novak Djokovic has piled up a record 24 Grand Slam singles titles, staking his claim as tennis’ greatest of all time. But no matter how many titles he won, he never ranked higher than No. 2 on the list of the sport’s highest-paid players—until Roger Federer’s retirement in 2022. The following year, Djokovic finally seized the top spot, with a combined $38.4 million in on-court and estimated off-court earnings.

  • When 52 weeks have passed since the points were acquired, they are dropped, and new points are added.
  • After one match in a challenger event in November, he withdrew with a hand injury.
  • It might be presumptuous putting the teenager here instead of more established players such as Mackenzie McDonald or Marcos Giron.
  • It was also interesting to see an athlete like Novak be able to run, to be able to stretch and play basketball.
  • But no matter how many titles he won, he never ranked higher than No. 2 on the list of the sport’s highest-paid players—until Roger Federer’s retirement in 2022.
  • Rublev, known for his explosive power and hard-shot baseline games, constantly delivers electrifying performances that leave fans in awe.

ATP and WTA Rankings

This year, the players have found themselves busier than ever, thanks to the inclusion of the Olympic tennis event on the schedule and the fact that matches are running longer and longer. Meanwhile the ATP have extended Masters 1000 tournaments to two weeks and the WTA have bumped up the number of mandatory events from four to 10. 2023 has been an amazing year in tennis, complete with record-setting performances on both the men’s and women’s sides. From Novak Djokovic putting his 24th grand slam title in the record books to Coco Gauff’s US Open finals three-set stunner, fans were treated to moments that will go down in history. Winners of the men’s singles and doubles grand slam tournaments receive 2,000 points with the runner-up receiving 1,300 points.

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16 spots of the 128-person field are reserved for professionals or amateurs who win three matches in the qualifying tournament. No qualifier entry has ever gone on to win the US Open until 2021 when 18-year-old Emma Raducanu did just that, claiming the Grand Slam title in dominating fashion without dropping a set the entire tournament. Since then, Radacanu has fallen out of the top 200, but she’s planning her return next year. Ben Shelton is a rising star who brings power, agility, and fearlessness to the game. Shelton’s elite serve speeds—which have hit as high as 149 mph during tournament play—draw gasps from the audience and racket claps from opponents.

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With a game style that has been described as a mix of Nadal and Federer, Holger Rune is part of the younger cohort leading the charge of the next generation of elite players. Rune, who turned pro in 2020, has four career titles, including the 2022 ATP Masters in Paris and the 2023 BMW Open in Munich, and is currently ranked sixth in the world. Jessica Pegula spent much of her early career battling on the lower ITF circuit, taking 11 years after turning pro to break into the top 100. Her determination and precision on the court, as well as the experience she has gained with her doubles partner Coco Gauff, have paid off. The 29-year-old American is now the fifth-ranked player in the world, holding four WTA singles titles and seven doubles titles.

Iga Swiatek

With 24 Grand Slam titles to his name, Djokovic has achieved unmatched success. Talks of retirement for the 36-year-old Serbian have quieted down as Djokovic boasts peak form while the next gen of players seek to take his throne. Federer’s record run of weeks at number 1 started on the 2nd of February 2004 just after he won his second grand slam at the 2004 Australian Open and lasted until the 17th of August 2008, with Rafael Nadal replacing him as number 1. The winners of challenger tournaments receive between 50 and 175 points depending on the level of the tournament, with runners up receiving between 30 and 100 points. Note there are some changes for 2024, with more points on offer in many tournaments; for example, a finalist at ATP 500 level now gets 330 points, compared to the previous 300.

‘Players have most to win and most to lose’

The average age of male players in the top 100 is just under 27 years old with Luca Van Assche, Arthur Fils, and Alex Michelsen (19) the youngest players, and Stan Wawrinka (38), the oldest player in the top 100. The ATP Rankings are not to be confused with the ATP Live Rankings. For example, a player can be first in the Live Race but lower in the ATP Rankings because he has enjoyed more success in the current season. I met Nick Kyrgios during the summer and I’m a massive fan of his. He’s doing amazing things off the court and we’ve got some of the same interests, like basketball, so hopefully I’ll get the chance to meet him a few more times. I think I was more nervous to have a run with him than I would be in an Olympic final.

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Novak Djokovic is the current world number 1 in the ATP rankings, with Novak currently holding the record for most weeks as the No.1 in men’s tennis. As the season draws to a close, the live rankings become more important as they reflect where a player will finish the year in the ATP Rankings. The ATP rankings determine which tournaments a player can enter and their seeding. For example, Carlos Alcaraz is known as the World No. 1 because he sits in first place in the Rankings. Casper Ruud is known as a Top 10 player because he is No. 4 in the Rankings.

Top 10s: Ranking the best men’s and women’s players heading into 2024

  • The “open” in the US Open means the tournament is open for anyone to compete.
  • There’s still room for improvement and plenty of time left to improve.
  • The winners of challenger tournaments receive between 50 and 175 points depending on the level of the tournament, with runners up receiving between 30 and 100 points.
  • After a change to her coaching team, she won summer titles in Washington and Cincinnati, beating Iga Swiatek for the first time.
  • Unusually for the incestuous world of tennis, the 44-year-old Nassar has worked at a high level in other sports, including the NFL.
  • She won 22 of 23 matches at one point, won nine of her last 13 against top-10ers and finishes the year third in the world.

Ruud claimed his 12th career ATP Tour title in May in Geneva. Eleven have come on clay, but when he is healthy—a parasite hindered him in the spring, and an illness knocked him out of this month’s tournament in Montreal—Ruud can compete on any surface. He is the only man 25 or younger with at least 100 career victories on both hardcourts and clay. Off the court, Ruud has added deals with Fleming watches, Swedish bank Handelsbanken and Renault, on top of a half-dozen existing sponsors. The 22-year-old from San Candido, Italy started the year ranked 15th in the world before jumping to fourth as of the end of October. Sinner defeated world number one Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals at the 2023 Miami Open, and has attributed his recent success to his improved mental, physical conditioning, and change in coaching staff.

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There’s still room for improvement and plenty of time left to improve. After a change to her coaching team, she won summer titles in Washington and Cincinnati, beating Iga Swiatek for the first time. Then she carved through the US Open field, beating Aryna Sabalenka in the final.

best tennis players 2024

Federer’s special gesture for next generation of stars

The 38-year-old Spaniard has two Olympic gold medals in his trophy case, winning men’s singles in 2008 and men’s doubles in 2016. He did not compete at the 2012 or 2020 Olympics due to injury. The first official rankings were published by the ATP on the 23rd of August 1973 with Ilie Nastase being the first tennis player to be ranked number 1 in the world.

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Both players and their teams boarded the same private plane from Beijing to Shanghai, to prepare for the Masters 1000 event. Alcaraz improved to 6-4 in his career against Sinner after their 10th meeting in what has become tennis’ top rivalry following the 60 matches between Nadal and Djokovic. Novak Djokovic is the most decorated men’s tennis player in history when it comes to Grand Slams, but he will be chasing a career first in Paris. Draws for the five tennis events at the 2024 Olympics were announced on Thursday, July 25, the day before the Opening Ceremony.

Currently the third-ranked player in the world, Daniil Medvedev is one of the most charismatic and outspoken individuals in tennis. Not afraid to get in a verbal altercation with the umpire over a ruling or even with members of the audience who aren’t seated during play, Daniil’s creativity on the court makes him one to watch. The 21-year-old from Spain has already won four Grand Slams and is coming off back-to-back major titles with triumphs at the French Open and Wimbledon. Djokovic and Nadal could play each other in the second round of the men’s singles event if they each win their first-round match.

  • She won 22 of 23 matches at one point, won nine of her last 13 against top-10ers and finishes the year third in the world.
  • There’s still room for improvement and plenty of time left to improve.
  • The winners of challenger tournaments receive between 50 and 175 points depending on the level of the tournament, with runners up receiving between 30 and 100 points.
  • Unusually for the incestuous world of tennis, the 44-year-old Nassar has worked at a high level in other sports, including the NFL.
  • The “open” in the US Open means the tournament is open for anyone to compete.

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Djokovic will face Australia’s Matthew Ebden to begin the tournament, while Nadal will square off against Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics. The world’s top tennis players are getting ready to run it back at Roland-Garros. The official rankings are updated every Monday, except during the middle of Grand Slam tournaments and Miami + Indian Wells.

These rankings are used for seedings and determining which tournament a player can enter directly. After a bright 2022, Nakashima suffered a lost year of sorts. https://zanzibet.org/ He spent much of the year battling a nagging knee injury; after ranking in the mid-40s for most of the spring, he found himself in the 150s in October.

As Nassar told Telegraph Sport, tennis’s ongoing inertia is a far bigger problem for the players than it is for the various powerbrokers – most of whom are too busy with day-to-day firefighting to look at the sport as a whole. It might be presumptuous putting the teenager here instead of more established players such as Mackenzie McDonald or Marcos Giron. The big-serving, 6-foot-4 Michelsen took down both McDonald and John Isner on his way to the Newport finals in July. Success on the challenger and futures circuits bumped him into the top 100 and earned him a spot in the year-end NextGen finals. We talk a lot about ceilings in a piece like this, and for a while it felt as if Gauff had found hers. She spent most of a year ranked either seventh or eighth in the world, and from August 2021 through May 2023, she went just 3-15 against top-10 opponents.

Challenger Tournaments

When 52 weeks have passed since the points were acquired, they are dropped, and new points are added. If you match your performance from 52 weeks ago, you have a net gain/loss of zero points. You’ll gain points if you better your performance, but if you perform worse, you’ll lose points.

best tennis players 2024

“The system is so biased against the players, as well as sub-optimal for fans and media partners and other commercial partners,” Nassar explained. “Only yesterday you had Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff playing in Beijing in what should be a celebrated match, but it’s late in the year and everyone’s already burned out. The ATP and WTA both use non-competition clauses which limit players’ ability to compete in these independent events away from the tour.

Before coming to Forbes, Knight worked in sports and business news as an editor at the New York Times. He graduated from the University of Missouri with degrees in journalism and economics. Follow Knight for deep dives into the dollars driving the sports world.

But such restrictions could potentially be classed as restraint of trade if a legal challenge were to be launched. Already this season, we have seen proposals for a streamlined “Premium Tour” peter out, while cases of player burn-out proliferate, and matches increasingly extend into the small hours of the morning. Frustration is building within both the men’s and women’s locker rooms. The PTPA’s central point is that the average tennis player remains overworked and underpaid by the standards of global sport. Although the ATP and WTA Tours have staved off the spectre of a LIV-style breakaway, mainly by granting official events to Saudi Arabia, it now seems as though revolution could come from within.

Tsitsipas has racked up ten career wins since turning pro in 2016, currently holding a spot as the seventh ranked player in the world. Coco Gauff captured the attention of the tennis world with her stunning three-set victory over world number one Aryna Sabalenka at the 2023 US Open. Gauff’s finals performance drew more viewers than the men’s championship match and at just 19, the third-ranked American is a newfound leader in the sport. Below is a breakdown of the points awarded to players at ATP 250, 500, 1000, and grand slam tournaments in 2024. A male professional tennis player’s ranking is based on their performance at ATP-sanctioned tournaments over the proceeding 52-week period. The lineup includes six of the top 12 male players and six of the top 10 female players, with 2024 Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcíkova and women’s doubles Paris 2024 gold medallist Jasmine Paolini making their debut.

She was nearly upset-proof, but she was struggling to break through to a top-five level. “I think we both respect each other a lot, as a player, as a person, but once we are on tour travelling, during tournaments when we are on site, we are with our team on our own, so we don’t speak too much. Canelo Álvarez, Devin Booker, Carli Lloyd and the Cavinder twins. He has also reported on industry trends such as the tech revolution in trading cards, Las Vegas’ rise as a sports town and the American-led investments in Italian soccer. Knight joined Forbes in 2017 and previously served as the assistant managing editor for contributors—overseeing the website’s network of nearly 3,000 freelance writers and the editors working with them—and as the deputy business editor.

It was cool getting to walk onto Rod Laver Arena and be part of a different sport. It was also interesting to see an athlete like Novak be able to run, to be able to stretch and play basketball. The PTPA has mostly stayed out of the headlines for the past five years, concentrating on building its infrastructure, offering player services and benefits, and raising revenue via trading cards and computer games.

The World Tennis League on Friday unveiled a star-studded lineup of players, featuring two Olympic gold medallists and five Grand Slam champions for its third season. The protected ranking gives a player a spot in the rankings determined by the player’s average ATP Rankings position during the first three months of his injury. With 2024 NFL training camps on the horizon, the league’s true insiders made their voices heard.

Veterans like Madison Keys, Danielle Collins and Sloane Stephens battled consistency issues. Speaking during his post-match press conference in China, Alcaraz expanded on his bubbling rivalry with the Italian, telling reporters the two “aren’t close friends.” “It keeps happening every single time they play. They come up with suspense, they come up with entertainment.” “They are following in the footsteps of the ‘Big Three’ in terms of level,” Wilander told EuroSport. Novak Djokovic holds the record for most year end number 1s with a total of eight to his name (2023, 2021, 2020, 2018, 2015, 2014, 2012, and 2011), followed by Pete Sampras with six, and Roger Federer, Jimmy Connors, and Rafael Nadal with five. Since then a total of 28 different men have achieved the number 1 status, with the current number 1 being Novak Djokovic of Serbia.

I can be fast running in a straight line, but being agile is pretty hard. The players also complain that the four slams are paying roughly 14 to 16 per cent of their annual income out in prize money, whereas franchise sports in the USA – such as basketball – return around 50 per cent of their income to the players. The 6-foot-11 serve-bot missed most of a year with a hip injury, then hurt his wrist during rehab. After one match in a challenger event in November, he withdrew with a hand injury.

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