ATP Rankings (19/08/24): Resurgent Tiafoe rises, out-of-form Mannarino falls

The ATP rankings are once again updating prematurely to the end of a tournament, as the countdown to the US Open begins!

Coming into the Cincinnati Masters, Frances Tiafoe was having a very mixed season and the American had actually lost more matches than he had won in 2024.

However, after beating the likes of Lorenzo Musetti, Hubert Hurkacz and saving three match points against Holger Rune, Tiafoe has reached the first Masters 1000 final of his career.

As a result, the 26-year-old will climb back inside the top 20 for the first time since March and could jump as high as No.17 if he was to beat Jannik Sinner in the final later today.

Although the aforementioned Holger Rune was unable to convert his match point opportunities against Tiafoe, the Dane has been able to gain 390 points after achieving his best result in Cincinnati.

Big Movers

Tiafoe is one of a few players to have breakout weeks in Cincinnati, but it is actually Damir Dzumhur who is the biggest riser inside the top 100 this week.

Dzumhur was not playing in Cincinnati this week, but after winning his fourth Challenger title of the year in Santo Domingo the 32-year-old Bosnian has been able to climb 19 places upto World No.81, his highest ranking since 2019.

Dominican déjà vu! 🇩🇴@DzumhurDamir claims his second title in Santo Domingo, NINE years after his first crown#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/4eCPxLxTzv

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) August 18, 2024

It has actually been a quiet week in terms of major upward movements in the ATP rankings, but some of the other players to enjoy successful weeks like Dzumhur are Alex Michelsen (+5 to No.52), Roman Safiullin (+7 to No.59), Marton Fucsovics (+5 to No.79), Jaume Munar (+7 to No.82), Laslo Djere (+6 to No.100), Mattia Bellucci (+11 to No.102), Vit Kopriva (+14 to No.118), Gabriel Diallo (+11 to No.144) and Marc-Andrea Huesler (+40 to No.165).

There have been more significant downward shifts this week, with Adrian Mannarino continuing his poor run of form after extending his losing streak to nine matches in Cincinnati.

The 36-year-old Frenchman was ranked inside the top 20 back in April, but has now slipped a further nine places down to No.42 after he was unable to defend his Cincinnati quarter-final points from last year.

Max Purcell was also a quarter-finalist in Cincinnati last year, but was unable to take full advantage of his wildcard at the Masters 1000 event after losing in the second round to Pablo Carreno-Busta. As a consequence, the Australian has fallen 23 spots down to World No.91.

It has also been a tough week for three-time major winner Stan Wawrinka, who has not played since the Paris Olympic Games.

The Swiss has tumbled down the rankings this week to No.179 after falling 38 places, but is expected to be at the US Open after receiving a wildcard as a former champion.

Some of the other significant fallers this week include Alexei Popyrin (-5 to No.28), Dusan Lajovic (-12 to No.66), Emil Ruusuvuori (-10 to No.83), Constant Lestienne (-22 to No.110), Jesper De Jong (-27 to No.130), Leandro Riedi (-14 to No.131), Mackenzie McDonald (-21 to No.140), Emilio Nava (-28 to No.173), Dan Evans (-9 to No.187) and Benjamin Hassan (-29 to No.195).

ATP Rankings Top 20 (19/08/24)

Here is the current top 20 in the ATP rankings after last week’s action, with Jannik Sinner capitalising on dropped points for both Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz:

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

Race to the ATP Finals in Turin (19/08/24)

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.

After reaching his fifth final of the season, Jannik Sinner has become the first player to confirm their place in the ATP Finals in Turin later this year:

1. Jannik Sinner – 7050 points (Qualified)

2.Carlos Alcaraz – 5960 points

3. Alexander Zverev – 5715 points

4. Daniil Medvedev – 4020 points

5. Casper Ruud – 3595 points

6. Andrey Rublev (↑1) – 3280 points

7. Novak Djokovic (↓1) – 3160 points

8. Alex de Minaur  – 2905 points

9. Stefanos Tsitsipas – 2725 points

10. Taylor Fritz – 2590 points

FORZA JANNIK 👏

Sinner is the first to qualify for this year’s Nitto ATP Finals, and is ready to battle it out on home soil 💪🇮🇹@nittoatpfinals | #NittoATPFinals | @janniksin pic.twitter.com/0ANj8hI3aS

— ATP Tour (@atptour) August 10, 2024

Next week

We are just one week away from the US Open main draw getting underway, which means that 128 players are competing to qualify for the New York major in the coming days.

This includes former top 10 players Diego Schwartzman, Richard Gasquet and Lucas Pouille, as well as teenage sensation Joao Fonseca.

Richard Gasquet, Diego Schwartzman headline 2024 US Open men’s qualifying drawhttps://t.co/8By21f2NuQ

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 18, 2024

There is also an ATP 250 event taking place in Winston-Salem, as well as Challenger tournaments in Bulgaria and China.

READ MORE – Tennis on TV Next Week: How to watch US Open Qualifying, ATP Winston-Salem and much 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:

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.

READ NEXT: Jannik Sinner claims he is ‘not worried’ about ongoing hip concerns after reaching Cincinnati final

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