By Jürgen Fritz, Mon 06 Jun 2022, Cover photo: © JFB

Djokovic was unable to defend his Roland Garros title. He was eliminated by Nadal in the quarter-finals and drops from 1 to 3 in the JFB Ranking. Medvedev was even eliminated in the round of 16. This means that Zverev, who reached the semi-finals, takes over the top position for the first time and Rafael Nadal moves up from 5 to 4 with his victory, the finalist Ruud from 9 to 5.

Djokovic now holds only one of the top six titles

Novak Djokovic has led the JFB 52 Week Tennis World Ranking for a very long time. Now he loses this position and drops to 3. If you look at his performance in the last six major tournaments, it quickly becomes clear why:

• Wimbledon (A) 2021: Victory over Berrettini in the final.
• Olympics (B) 2021: Defeat in the semi-finals against Zverev and then also in the bronze medal match against Carreno Busta. (Gold medal: Zverev, Silver: Khachanov)
• US Open (A) 2021: Defeat in the final against Medvedev
• ATP Finals (B) 2021: Loss in semi-final to Zverev. (Winner: Zverev)
• Australian Open (A) 2022: Title defence not possible as not eligible to play due to lack of vaccination. (Winner: Nadal)
• Roland Garros (A) 2022: Title not defended, defeat in quarter-finals by Nadal (Tournament winner: Nadal)

So of the six most important titles, only the Wimbledon one (100 points) remains for Djokovic to defend in late June, early July. And at the last nine Masters 1000 events (C), the Serb won two, but five times he did not even start or was not allowed to start due to his lack of vaccination. In total, Djokovic played only twelve tournaments in the last 52 weeks, while the 18 best results count in the JFB ranking. So he could not take advantage of this at all.

Zverev takes over the No. 1 position for the first time, but is now out for several weeks due to injury

Alexander Zverev, on the other hand, won four tournaments in the second half of 2021, including Olymia (B: 75 points) and the ATP Finals (B: 62 points), as well as a Masters 1000 (C: 40 points) and an ATP 500 (D: 20 points). And this year he reached the semi-finals in Monte Carlo (C) (14 points), the final in Madrid (C) (24 points), and the semi-finals again in Rome (C) and Roland Garros (A) (14 and 35 points respectively).

Due to his foot injury, which he sustained in the semi-finals of the French Open, he will certainly be out of action for several weeks, so that he will not be able to defend the number 1 position and Daniil Medvedev is likely to overtake him soon. The Russian is only 4.3 points behind Zverev, is playing in the grass court tournament in ’s-Hertogenbosch (E) this week, has entered Halle (D) next week and Mallorca (E) the week after next, so he can collect plenty of points if he plays well there.

Nadal manages to move up to 4th position with only eight tournaments played and Ruud moves up from 9 to 5

Rafael Nadal now even manages to move up to No. 4 with only eight tournaments played in the last 52 weeks. His record is hugely impressive. In eight starts, he has won the tournament four times, including both Grand Slam events in which he played. In his case, it is currently not clear to what extent he will be able to continue playing this season, as he is suffering from his ailing foot, as he did last year, which cost him the entire second half of 2021. This could now threaten him again, possibly even the end of his career, if the complaints do not improve. But if he is fit again by Wimbledon or the US Open, he could gain a lot of points, as he only has 2 points to defend in the next six to seven months.

Weit nach vorne schiebt sich nach seinem erstmaligen Einzug ins Finale eines Grand Slam-Turniers der Norweger Casper Ruud, der von 9 auf 5 vorrückt, sogar ganz knapp an Carlos Alcaraz vorbeiziehen kann. Ruud gewann in den letzten zwölf Monaten sechs E-Turniere (ATP 250). Auch Alcaraz bringt es auf sechs Turniersiege, darunter sogar zwei D- und zwei C-Events (500er und 1000er). Nächste Woche haben beide beim Rasenturnier in London Queen’s Club (D) gemeldet und könnten da im Finale aufeinandertreffen, wenn sie an 1 und 2 gesetzt werden. Das Turnier könnte also doppelt wichtig werden für die Vorbereitung auf Wimbledon.

Tsitsipas and Berrettini fall back

Stefanos Tsitsipas and Matteo Berrettini both drop three places from 4 to 7 and from 7 to 10 respectively. The Greek was unable to defend his points from last year when he reached the final of the French Open (60 points), surprisingly he was already eliminated in the round of 16 (10 points) against Rune, thus losing 50 points.

And Berrettini has been injured since mid-March. He was in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros last year, so he loses 20 points. He finally gets back into it this week in Stuttgart (E) and has 20 points to defend next week at Queen’s Club as tournament winner and 60 points at Wimbledon as finalist.

Unlike the ATP Ranking, JFB Ranking will, of course, fully evaluate Wimbledon and distribute the points as usual, i.e. award 100 points for winning the tournament.

The JFB 52 Week Tennis World Ranking

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

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

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