ATP: Now it’s official – new rankings from 2019

With the beginning of 2019, things will change on the ATP tour. However, this does not affect the top professionals, but those players who want to get into professional tennis.

The wish of the ATP, the association of professional tennis players, that whoever chooses the profession of professional tennis player should also be able to make a living, has been known for some time. Also, how this goal is to be achieved: by shortage.

Concrete plans have now been drawn up as to what the ranking system will look like from 2019: In both singles and doubles, about 750 players will actually be listed in the ATP rankings. For comparison: On April 1, 2018, there were 1020 individual professionals. It is obvious that many of them cannot make a living from their sport.

Starting next year, ATP points will only be awarded at Grand Slam tournaments and events of the ATP World Tour and the ATP Challenger Tour. The ITF futures will trade as ITF Transition Tour, points for the ATP charts will only be awarded in the category from 25,000+ – and even then only for the last four players in the tournament.

On 31.12.2018, all points earned on ITF futures that were not earned at 25,000+ tournaments will also drop out of the valuation. As early as July 2018, the ATP will introduce so-called “shadow rankings” – these should give players an outlook on what they would look like after the introduction of the new regulations. This will come into effect with the first tournament in the calendar year 2019.

For the ITF Transition Tour a separate ranking will be created, according to which the starting places at ATP Challengers will also be allocated. Places for players of the ITF Transition Tour are to be guaranteed. The same principle applies to the events of the ITF Transition Tour.