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ATP Rankings (23/09/24): Marin Cilic - US Open 2021, Aslan Karatsev - Australian Open 2022
ATP Tennis Players, Tennis News, Tennis Tournaments

ATP Rankings (23/09/24): Cilic makes colossal charge, Karatsev crashes


The Asian swing got underway last week, with some new and more familiar faces having a big impact on the latest update of the ATP rankings.

With tournaments not being completed until yesterday, the full update of the rankings has taken place midweek rather than the usual Monday, and will continue to do so while the ATP Tour is in Asia.

There were two ATP 250 level tournaments taking place this week in Chengdu and Hangzhou, with Juncheng Shang and Marin Cilic the respective champions.

Big Movers

It has been an impressive year so far for Shang, who is just 19-years-old and began the season ranked at No.183.

After beating the likes of Kei Nishikori, Alexander Bublik and top seed Lorenzo Musetti in the final, Shang claimed his maiden ATP title.

Shang is only the second Chinese man to achieve this, after Yibing Wu won the tournament in Dallas last year, and he is also the first player born in 2005 or later to win a main tour ATP title.

As a result, Shang has risen another 15 places upto a career-high ranking of World No.52.

The other title winner of the week on the main tour was a more familiar face in Marin Cilic, with the 35-year-old playing only his third tournament since undergoing knee surgery.

However, it was like the 2014 US Open champion had never been away, beating Chinese No.1 Zhizhen Zhang to claim the 21st title of his decorated career.

This completes a historic week for Cilic, who began the tournament ranked as World No.777 and has now become the lowest ranked title winner in ATP history.

Cilic has subsequently made a colossal jump in the ATP rankings this week, climbing 565 places upto No.212, as he looks set to continue his comeback in Tokyo this week.

Despite not winning a title this week, the biggest upward mover inside the top 100 is another Chinese player in Yunchaokete Bu.

Bu reached his first ATP Tour semi-final this week in Hangzhou, and has now broken into the top 100 for the first time after climbing 28 places upto No.96.

Some of the other significant upward movers this week include Zhizhen Zhang (+7 to No.41), Jaume Munar (+12 to No.62), Yannick Hanfmann (+13 to No.82), Thiago Seyboth Wild (+9 to No.87), Mikhail Kukushkin (+12 to No.100), Lucas Pouille (+18 to No.124), Yasutaka Uchiyama (+24 to No.136), Nicolas Moreno De Alboran (+11 to No.145), Kamil Majchrzak (+16 to No.147), Federico Agustin Gomez (+16 to No.158), Gijs Brouwer (+61 to No.162), Alibek Kachmazov (+73 to No.179) and Valentin Royer (+31 to No.182).

It has been a less successful week for Roman Safiullin, who was looking to defend his finalist points from Chengdu last year. However, this was not to be for the 27-year-old Russian, who ran into eventual champion Shang in the second round.

This has caused Safiullin to drop 13 places in the rankings down to No.69, which is his lowest ranking this year.

Aslan Karatsev is a former Australian Open semi-finalist and World No.14, but has not been a big factor this year after winning only two main tour matches.

And he suffered another setback last week, losing in the first round of the tournament in Hangzhou to Mattia Bellucci. This has caused Karatsev to drop even further down the rankings, slipping 24 spots down to No.139.

The Russian duo are not the only players to suffer major ranking setbacks this week, with Yoshihito Nishioka (-5 to No.59), Damir Dzumhur (-8 to No.94), Camilo Ugo Carabelli (-21 to No.112), Constant Lestienne (-35 to No.138), Vit Kopriva (-10 to No.143), Henrique Rocha (-10 to No.168), Mackenzie McDonald (-23 to No.172), Alex Bolt (-13 to No.188) and Juan Pablo Varillas (-12 to No.190) also doing so.

ATP Rankings Top 20 (23/09/24)

Despite some significant changes in the ATP rankings this week, the top 20 has seen little movements:

RankingPlayerTournaments PlayedPoints
1Jannik Sinner 1811,180
2Alexander Zverev 236,875
3Carlos Alcaraz176,690
4Novak Djokovic 185,560
5Daniil Medvedev 185,475
6Andrey Rublev 254,645
7Taylor Fritz 224,060
8Hubert Hurkacz  224,060
9Casper Ruud 234,010
10Grigor Dimitrov 203,920
11Alex de Minaur 233,655
12Stefanos Tsitsipas 233,390
13Tommy Paul 213,005
14Holger Rune 252,780
15Frances Tiafoe ↑1252,560
16Sebastian Korda ↓1252,520
17Ben Shelton 242,490
18Lorenzo Musetti ↑1302,420
19Ugo Humbert ↓1272,370
20Jack Draper 232,315

For a full list of the rankings, visit the official ATP website

Race to the ATP Finals in Turin (23/09/24)

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.

With the Laver Cup not offering any ranking points, the top 10 in the race to the ATP Finals in Turin remains completely unchanged once again:

1. Jannik Sinner – 9000 points (Qualified)

2. Alexander Zverev – 6115 points (Qualified)

3. Carlos Alcaraz – 6010 points (Qualified)

4. Daniil Medvedev – 4420 points

5. Taylor Fritz – 3890 points

6. Casper Ruud – 3795 points

7. Andrey Rublev – 3480 points

8. Alex de Minaur  – 3305 points

9. Novak Djokovic – 3260 points

10. Grigor Dimitrov – 2835 points

Next week

The Asian swing steps up a gear this week, with ATP 500 events taking place in Beijing and Tokyo.

Beijing sees World No.1 and defending champion Jannik Sinner play his first tournament since winning the US Open, with a strong lineup including Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Grigor Dimitrov.

While in the Japanese capital of Tokyo, former champion Taylor Fritz is the top seed.

Fritz claimed the Japan Open title in 2022, and will have to fend off the likes of Hubert Hurkacz, Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Tommy Paul, Holger Rune, Frances Tiafoe, Matteo Berrettini and defending champion Ben Shelton if he is to reclaim the Tokyo crown.

There is also a very nostalgic first round meeting, as Marin Cilic is set to take on Kei Nishikori in a rematch of the 2014 US Open final.

READ MORE – Tennis on TV Next Week: How to watch the China Open and ATP Tokyo!

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 categoryWFSFQFR16R32R64R128Q
ATP Tour 
Grand Slam20001300800400200100501030
ATP Finals+900
(1500 max)		+400
(1000 max)		200 for each round robin match win
(600 max)
ATP Masters 100010006504002001005010 (30)(10)30 (20)
ATP 50050033020010050(25)25 (16)
ATP 2502501651005025(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 Australian Open in 2024 will have 1300 points deducted from their ranking following the 2025 final. Those points would then be replaced by those won at the 2025 tournament.

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Matthew Johns, Tennishead Writer, is a professional tennis journalist with a specialist degree in Sports Journalism. He's a keen tennis player having represented his local club and University plus he's also a qualified tennis coach. Matthew has a deep knowledge of tennis especially the ATP Tour and thrives on breaking big tennis news stories for Tennishead.