By Jürgen Fritz, Mon 31 Jan 2022, Cover photo: © JFB

Rafael Nadal won the Australian Open for the second time on Sunday, his 21st Grand Slam title. This has never been achieved by a male player since 1877. In the JFB Ranking, the Spaniard rises from 8 to 5 with only eight tournaments played in the last 52 weeks. Djokovic remains No. 1 thanks to Zverev’s early elimination and Medvedev’s defeat again in the final.

Djokovic loses 100 points

As Novak Djokovic was denied entry to Australia due to his lack of vaccination against COVID-19, the Serb was unable to defend his Australian Open title and thus loses 100 points in the JFB 52 Week Tennis World Ranking, falling from 501.0 to 401.0. Alexander Zverev would have only needed to reach the quarter-finals again to overtake Djokovic (20 points). However, the German was surprisingly eliminated in the round of 16 against Denis Shapovalov and thus loses 10 points.

Last year’s finalist Daniil Medvedev could also have overtaken Djokovic, who was absent in Australia, in the JFB Ranking. But he would have had to win the tournament to do so. In the dramatic final of the Australian Open, he was already leading 2:0 sets, but then lost the match to Rafael Nadal in five long sets. Thus, Medvedev cannot improve his score, loses the 60 points from last year and replaces them with 60 points for this year’s participation in the final, thus remaining the same in his score.

Nadal rises from 8 to 5 with only eight tournaments played

Stefanos Tsitsipas could not improve either, who reached the semi-finals of the AO as last year (35 points). However, the new AO champion Rafael Nadal, who was eliminated by Tsitsipas in the quarter-finals last year (35 points) and now won the tournament (100 points), can of course improve. Nadal thus rises from 8 to 5 and that with only eight tournaments played in the last 52 weeks, whereby the same tournament is not counted twice if it is played twice within 52 weeks.

Only the last tournament played counts. (In 2021, the Australian Open was not played in late January but in February).

Berrrettini overtakes Rublev – Sinner, Auger-Aliassime, Shapovalov and Monfils rise in the rankings

The Italian Matteo Berrettini also clearly improved his points ranking by reaching the semi-finals (35 points instead of 10 points last year), now also overtakes Andrey Rublev, but is in turn overtaken by Nadal, so that he remains in position 6. Jannik Sinner also improved his score. The 20-year-old Italian – the youngest Top 15 player – advanced to the quarterfinals this year (20 points), while in 2021 he was already eliminated in round one (0 points). The two Canadian ATP Cup winners Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov also advanced to the quarter-finals. The two Canadians thus also rise in their world ranking position.

The biggest leap, however, is made by Frenchman Gael Monfils, who failed in round one last year, hardly won any matches until July 2021 and then even fell out of the top 50, but has been getting better and better since August and now even reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open (20 points). The 35-year-old thus climbs from 36 to 23 in the JFB ranking.

The JFB 52 Week Tennis World Ranking after the Australian Open

And this is how the current 52-week men’s world ranking looks after the Australian Open (A):

Here you can read how the JFB 52 Week Tennis World Ranking works.

Big Title Kings: Nadal now in first place

Nadal’s 21st Grand Slam tournament win means he now leads the Big Titles, ahead of Djokovic and Federer:

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