ATP Rankings (29/01/24): Oldest world No.1 in history crowned, as Tsitsipas drops to lowest ranking in five years
The Australian Open has provided the ATP rankings with the biggest update so far this year, that includes a 43-year-old becoming world No.1 for the first time!
Jannik Sinner won his first Grand Slam singles title on Sunday, however the top five in the rankings have remained completely the same.
However, this cannot be said for doubles, with Rohan Bopanna becoming world No.1 for the first time at the age of 43 years and 331 days after winning the Australian Open doubles title with Matt Ebden.
Look what it means to @rohanbopanna and @mattebden 😍
At 43, Bopanna has his FIRST Men's Doubles Grand Slam title – and becomes the oldest to do so in the Open Era 👏👏#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/qs0JlrkMO7
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 27, 2024
The Indian is the oldest person to reach the summit of the rankings in history, surpassing the previous record holder, Mike Bryan (41 years and 76 days).
Big Movers
Reverting back to singles, the biggest upward mover after the first Grand Slam of the year is Frenchman Arthur Cazaux.
Cazaux was fortunate enough to receive the French wildcard for the Australian Open and he certainly took advantage of that, becoming the first wildcard since Lleyton Hewitt (2012) to reach the fourth round of the tournament.
As a result, the 21-year-old has risen a massive 39 places to reach a career-high ranking of No.83.
Nuno Borges also made history in Melbourne, after becoming the first Portuguese man to reach the second week of the Australian Open.
This has paid dividend in terms of his ranking, with Borges following in the footsteps of Joao Sousa as the second player from Portugal to break inside the top 50.
Welcome to the Top 50, @nunoborges97! 🎉
🇵🇹 Nuno Borges soars from #69 to #47 on the rankings today—his Top 50 debut—after becoming the first Portuguese player ever, man OR woman, to reach the round of 16 at the Australian Open. 👏
He was only the second to do it at ANY major:
— TENNIS (@Tennis) January 29, 2024
Other significant upward movers include Miomir Kecmanovic (+19 to No.41), Fabian Marozsan (+10 to No.57), Tomas Machac (+9 to No.66), Luca Van Assche (+11 to No.68), Alex Michelsen (+18 to No.73), Flavio Cobolli (+24 to No.76), Aleksandar Kovacevic (+16 to No.85), Brandon Nakashima (+31 to No.96), Pedro Martinez (+10 to No.99) and Quentin Halys (+10 to No.100).
Although Stefanos Tsitsipas has only fallen three places, the Greek is now at his lowest ranking in five years (No.10) after failing to defend his runner-up points from the 2023 Australian Open.
One of the biggest downward movers is Roberto Bautista Agut (-29 to No.101), who has fallen outside the top 100 for the first time in 12 years after losing in the first round of the Melbourne major.
Some of the other big fallers are Jiri Lehecka (-8 to No.31), Sebastian Korda (-7 to No.33), Alexander Shevchenko (-11 to No.59), J.J Wolf (-20 to No.77), Marton Fucsovics (-12 to No.82), Yoshihito Nishioka (-23 to No.84), David Goffin (-22 to No.134) and Denis Shapovalov (-23 to No.137).
ATP Rankings Top 20 (29/01/24)
Here is the full breakdown of the top 20 players in the ATP rankings:
| Ranking | Player | Tournaments Played | Points |
| 1 | Novak Djokovic | 19 | 9,855 |
| 2 | Carlos Alcaraz | 18 | 9,255 |
| 3 | Daniil Medvedev | 21 | 8,765 |
| 4 | Jannik Sinner | 22 | 8,310 |
| 5 | Andrey Rublev | 24 | 5,050 |
| 6 | Alexander Zverev | 27 | 5,030 |
| 7 | Holger Rune | 23 | 3,685 |
| 8 | Hubert Hurkacz | 24 | 3,540 |
| 9 | Taylor Fritz | 26 | 3,195 |
| 10 | Stefanos Tsitsipas | 24 | 3,025 |
| 11 | Alex de Minaur | 25 | 2,970 |
| 12 | Casper Ruud | 23 | 2,965 |
| 13 | Grigor Dimitrov | 23 | 2,785 |
| 14 | Frances Tiafoe | 22 | 2,060 |
| 15 | Tommy Paul | 26 | 2,050 |
| 16 | Ben Shelton | 27 | 1,965 |
| 17 | Adrian Mannarino | 30 | 1,920 |
| 18 | Karen Khachanov | 21 | 1,910 |
| 19 | Cameron Norrie | 25 | 1,820 |
| 20 | Nicolas Jarry | 23 | 1,810 |
For a full list of the rankings, visit the official ATP website
Race to the ATP Finals in Turin (29/01/24)
The ATP Finals are a highly anticipated event that take place at the end of each year, featuring the top eight singles players and doubles teams from the tennis season.
Unsurprisingly, Sinner’s maiden Grand Slam triumph has put him at the front of the race to his home event in Turin:
1. Jannik Sinner – 2000 points
2. Daniil Medvedev – 1300 points
3. Alexander Zverev – 1135 points
4. Novak Djokovic – 860 points
5. Andrey Rublev – 650 points
6. Hubert Hurkacz – 550 points
7. Alex de Minaur – 465 points
8. Taylor Fritz – 445 points
—————————————————-
9. Carlos Alcaraz – 400 points
10. Alejandro Tabilo – 378 points
What dreams are made of ☀️ pic.twitter.com/Fq2sEGP4TV
— Jannik Sinner (@janniksin) January 29, 2024
Next week
After a hectic two weeks of action in Melbourne, things are set to calm down with only one main tour event taking place in Montpellier.
Holger Rune is the top seed at the ATP 250 indoor hard court tournament, with former champions Richard Gasquet, Gael Monfils, Alexander Bublik and Lucas Pouille also featuring.
Andy Murray returns to action as the fifth seed in southern France, as he looks to bounce back from his disappointing opening round defeat at the Australian Open.
📋 TABLEAU OPEN SUD DE FRANCE 2024 ! pic.twitter.com/FyHBeNUNLe
— Open Sud de France (@OpenSuddeFrance) January 27, 2024
READ MORE – Tennis on TV next week: How to watch ATP Montpellier, WTA Linz and more!
ATP Rankings rules
ATP rankings track and rank all the players on tour over a 52-week period. Points are awarded for performance, with the biggest tournaments giving out the most points over the course of the year.
Those rankings are then used to determine a number of things, such as seedings at tournaments and deciding who qualifies for the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin.
ATP rankings points awarded/tournament
The following points are awarded for the different tiers of tournaments on the ATP Tour, with some slight alterations made for the 2024 season:
| Tournament category | W | F | SF | QF | R16 | R32 | R64 | R128 | Q |
| ATP Tour | |||||||||
| Grand Slam | 2000 | 1300 | 800 | 400 | 200 | 100 | 50 | 10 | 30 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATP Finals | +900 (1500 max) | +400 (1000 max) | 200 for each round robin match win (600 max) | ||||||
| ATP Masters 1000 | 1000 | 650 | 400 | 200 | 100 | 50 | 10 (30) | (10) | 30 (20) |
| ATP 500 | 500 | 330 | 200 | 100 | 50 | (25) | 25 (16) | ||
| ATP 250 | 250 | 165 | 100 | 50 | 25 | (13) | 13 (8) | ||
Admissible tournaments
To prevent players from manipulating the rankings by playing a large amount of smaller tournaments, only 19 tournaments are admissible over the course of the year to make up a ranking.
That number does not include the ATP Finals, with that treated as an extra earned opportunity to win rankings points. However, the bigger and most prestigious tournaments are considered ‘mandatory’ entries. For example, if a player lost in round one of a Grand Slam, they would not be permitted to omit it from their ranking in favour of an ATP 250 which earned them more points.
Therefore, players who compete at all the mandatory events in a season will have the following breakdown of admissible rankings points:
- 4 Grand Slams
- 8 Masters 1000
- 7 ‘Best Other’ performances
The rankings always cover the previous 52-week period, so any points won further back than that are deducted from a player’s total. That player will, though, have the chance to ‘defend’ their points by repeating or improving upon their previous performance.
An example would be a player who was a defeated finalist at the US Open in 2023 will have 1200 points deducted from their ranking following the 2024 final. Those points would then be replaced by those won at the 2024 tournament.
READ NEXT: Novak Djokovic still reigns in the rankings despite Jannik Sinner success
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