Top 10s: Ranking the best men’s and women’s American players heading into 2024

The World Tennis League on Friday unveiled a star-studded lineup of players, featuring two Olympic gold medallists and five Grand Slam champions for its third season. The protected ranking gives a player a spot in the rankings determined by the player’s average ATP Rankings position during the first three months of his injury. With 2024 NFL training camps on the horizon, the league’s true insiders made their voices heard.

From Carlos Alcaraz to Coco Gauff, here is a look at the top tennis stars headed to the Olympics.

His runner-up finish in Melbourne also gave him records for the most sets played at a Grand Slam tournament (31) and the most time spent on court (24 hours 17 minutes). An avid gamer, Medvedev has partnerships with HyperX gaming headsets and game makers EA Sports and Ubisoft, and he joined the ownership group of esports organization M80 last year. Since turning pro in 2003, Novak Djokovic has piled up a record 24 Grand Slam singles titles, staking his claim as tennis’ greatest of all time. But no matter how many titles he won, he never ranked higher than No. 2 on the list of the sport’s highest-paid players—until Roger Federer’s retirement in 2022. The following year, Djokovic finally seized the top spot, with a combined $38.4 million in on-court and estimated off-court earnings.

• The Entry Protection status gives players entry into the main draw or qualifying competition or for special exempt consideration.
• Sinner’s rollercoaster year took a dip this month when it was revealed he tested positive for a banned steroid in March and had to forfeit the prize money and ranking points he had earned at the Indian Wells tournament.
• The official rankings are updated every Monday, except during the middle of Grand Slam tournaments and Miami + Indian Wells.
• The World Tennis League on Friday unveiled a star-studded lineup of players, featuring two Olympic gold medallists and five Grand Slam champions for its third season.
• But a wrist injury there knocked him out for most of four months, and he won only one Slam match the rest of the year.
• And Nassar believes that change is possible, despite the chaotic and internecine struggles that usually pass for tennis politics.
• Sebastian Korda seemed primed for a breakthrough but missed months with an injury.

Jannik Sinner confident in avoiding doping ban after WADA appeal

Winners of the men’s singles and doubles at ATP 500 tournaments receive 500 points with the runner-up receiving 330 points. Winners of the men’s singles and doubles at mandatory Masters 1000 tournaments receive 1,000 points with the runner-up receiving 650 points. However, this does not mean that players who play the most tournaments will be ranked the highest as there is a max of 19 tournaments that goes into the calculation of a player’s ranking. The first are the official world rankings updated weekly on Mondays when points from the previous 52 weeks have dropped.

List of World Number 1s from 1973 to 2024

Iga Swiatek spent a whopping 75 consecutive weeks at world number one, the third-longest streak in WTA history, before getting bumped to number two after her fourth-round loss at the 2023 US Open. Swiatek’s strong forehand, in addition to her ability to hold serve incredibly well, makes it difficult for opponents to get ahead. If you are looking for the Live ATP rankings then this is available on the ATP Tour website. The Entry Protection status gives players entry into the main draw or qualifying competition or for special exempt consideration. The mission of the site is to allow tennis journalists and fans freedom and creativity in their writing, personal commentary, and out-of-the-box analysis. I’m a massive fan and I’ve been quite lucky to come to the Australian Open every single year.

‚No way anyone has ever played better‘: Great claims Alcaraz, Sinner better than ‚Big Three‘ at their best

These rankings are used for seedings and determining which tournament a player can enter directly. After a bright 2022, Nakashima suffered a lost year of sorts. He spent much of the year battling a nagging knee injury; after ranking in the mid-40s for most of the spring, he found himself in the 150s in October.

‘Players have most to win and most to lose’

Their mental capacity to do that and to be able to stay focused is unreal. That’s something I’d like to take from them, as well as being able to perform under all the pressure and circumstances they face on any given day. He created history at Tokyo 2020, becoming the first Australian in 53 years to qualify for an Olympic men’s 800-metre final. The players’ association founded by Novak Djokovic is weighing up a programme of legal challenges that could reshape the world game. In 2020, Kenin won the Australian Open and finished the year fourth in the world; she finished 2022 at 228th. After her career was derailed by injuries and vanishing form, Kenin stubbornly found herself again in 2023, beating Gauff at Wimbledon and Sabalenka in Rome and, in San Diego in September, reaching her first tour final since the 2020 French Open.

ATP Rankings

Do players such as Pegula, Fritz and Tiafoe still have another level to add to their respective games? Sinner’s rollercoaster year took a dip this month when it was revealed he tested positive for a banned steroid in March and had to forfeit the prize money and ranking points he had earned at the Indian Wells tournament. But the International Tennis Integrity Agency found that the low levels in his system were the result of contamination, and Sinner was not forced to miss any time on tour. While he did sit out the Paris Olympics because of tonsillitis and has been hampered by a hip injury, his season has taken him to new heights as well. Off the court, he picked up endorsements with skincare line La Roche-Posay and De Cecco pasta, alongside existing sponsors like Gucci, Lavazza coffee and Rolex.

Will Rafael Nadal play at the 2024 Olympics?

Djokovic was the ATP Tour’s year-end No. 1 player for an unprecedented eighth season in 2023 and became the oldest No. 1 in the history of the tour’s computerized singles rankings in April. He ended up extending his record for most weeks at No. 1 to 428 and then filled the lone hole in his astonishing résumé with an Olympic gold medal in Paris—an accomplishment that also earned him a $218,000 bonus from his native Serbia. Djokovic, who now sits at No. 2 in men’s singles, split with his longtime agent Edoardo Artaldi last year but maintains a lucrative endorsement portfolio that includes Asics, Head, Hublot and Lacoste. This month, President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia said there have been discussions about building a Djokovic museum in Belgrade. With lots of stars making gains and a couple breaking through in a major way, suddenly 2023 went from a year of stagnation to tantalizing development and depth.

Top 10s: Ranking the best men’s and women’s players heading into 2024

After prevailing at the French Open for a fourth time in June, Swiatek earned a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, securing a $50,000 bonus from her native Poland on top of nearly $11.7 million in prize money over the last 12 months. Only Novak Djokovic tops that figure, and by less than $300,000—no small feat considering that the prize money available to women still lags behind the men’s at some tournaments beyond the four majors. “Obviously it’s not our decision, but for sure I think we have too many tournaments in the season,” she said in an on-court interview at the Cincinnati Open this month. “It’s not going to end well.” Swiatek stays busy off the court, too, signing partner deals this year with Lego and Lancôme.

For Jannik Sinner and the sport he dominates, this is a nightmare spiralling out of control

Open tune-up and climbing back to No. 2 in the singles rankings. Open as the betting favorite, looking to improve on 2023’s runner-up finish. Away from tennis, she recently reeled in endorsements with açaí bowl chain Oakberry and Master & Dynamic headphones. Gauff’s major breakthrough with a singles championship at the 2023 U.S.

‚Quite obvious‘: Djokovic weighs in on doping saga

• While he did sit out the Paris Olympics because of tonsillitis and has been hampered by a hip injury, his season has taken him to new heights as well.
• The left-handed 21-year-old made waves during the 2023 US Open where he upset the 10th and 14th-seeded players, ultimately losing to Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals.
• Canelo Álvarez, Devin Booker, Carli Lloyd and the Cavinder twins.
• With lots of stars making gains and a couple breaking through in a major way, suddenly 2023 went from a year of stagnation to tantalizing development and depth.
• Follow Knight for deep dives into the dollars driving the sports world.
• Since then it’s gone on to be one of the largest independently owned website for tennis news and a platform for fans to share their views on the game.
• The lineup includes six of the top 12 male players and six of the top 10 female players, with 2024 Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcíkova and women’s doubles Paris 2024 gold medallist Jasmine Paolini making their debut.
• Rafael Nadal will compete in his third and final Olympics this summer at Roland-Garros, where he has won 14 French Open titles.

With the new year right around the corner, 2024 is looking to bring even more drama-filled action to the courts with potential retirement plans for some of the all-time greats. In addition, you’ll catch past winners returning to the game after some time away and the hunt for first grand slam titles, courtesy of hungry, up-and-coming athletes. With all that said, we bet you’re asking yourself who you should be watching out for in 2024. Carlos Alcaraz is leading the charge of the younger generation of professional tennis players. At just 20 years old, the Spaniard has already racked up 12 career titles including two Grand Slams. With lightning-fast court speed, pinpoint accuracy from the baseline and a devious drop shot, Alcaraz has few, if any, weaknesses in his game as one of the most exciting players around.

She was nearly upset-proof, but she was struggling to break through to a top-five level. „I think we both respect each other a lot, as a player, as a person, but once we are on tour travelling, during tournaments when we are on site, we are with our team on our own, so we don’t speak too much. Canelo Álvarez, Devin Booker, Carli Lloyd and the Cavinder twins. He has also reported on industry trends such as the tech revolution in trading cards, Las Vegas‘ rise as a sports town and the American-led investments in Italian soccer. Knight joined Forbes in 2017 and previously served as the assistant managing editor for contributors—overseeing the website’s network of nearly 3,000 freelance writers and the editors working with them—and as the deputy business editor.

Tennis gold medalists from Tokyo Olympics

„I hope Roger, Novak, and Rafa are not listening, but in terms of level, when Sinner and Alcaraz are at their best, there is no way anyone has ever played better tennis. She reached the third round in her first Olympics and is coming off a second-round defeat to https://zanzibet.org/ eventual champion Iga Swiatek at Wimbledon. The ATP Rankings system is the method used by the Association of Tennis Professionals to see who should qualify and who should be seeded in the different singles and doubles ATP Tournaments held all across the world.

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But she went against everyone else on tour, with two top-10 wins and four quarterfinal appearances. She is managing a number of chronic issues and doesn’t play a ton of events, but at worst she should remain a constant bracket-buster candidate in any tournament. On-court earnings figures reflect prize money and Olympic medal bonuses collected over the last 12 months, dating to the 2023 U.S. The list includes athletes active during the 12-month time period. Known as “Queen Wen” to her fans, Qinwen Zheng has been befuddling opponents with her signature high-spinning forehand and powerful serve. The 25-year-old from China relies on her speed to control points from serve, and has shown a lot of promise in her young career.

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We’re serving up the ultimate ranking of the best tennis players of 2024, a list created for fans, by fans. Our criteria for ranking these athletes takes into account this year’s performance on the court, current ATP rankings, consistency, sportsmanship, and popularity among fans globally. This list is intended to celebrate the skill, persistence, and flair of these athletes while also appreciating the transformative effect they have had on the game we love. Medvedev has a single Grand Slam win—in Flushing Meadows in 2021—but he has reached five other major finals, including the 2019 and 2023 U.S.

Aryna Sabalenka

She lost four of five to end the year, but she’s nearly back in the top 30 and, at 25, still has time to carve out another peak. On the men’s side, for instance, Tommy Paul reached the semifinals of the Australian Open, and Christopher Eubanks enjoyed a late-career breakthrough at Wimbledon. „I think for the people who don’t watch tennis, probably thanks to these kind of matches, [they] start to watch tennis or even practice it. I think it is pretty good.“ „When Jannik and I face each other, playing against each other, I think it’s a really good thing for tennis because we always show a really intense match, really close match, great points, great rallies.

Novak Djokovic

Both players and their teams boarded the same private plane from Beijing to Shanghai, to prepare for the Masters 1000 event. Alcaraz improved to 6-4 in his career against Sinner after their 10th meeting in what has become tennis‘ top rivalry following the 60 matches between Nadal and Djokovic. Novak Djokovic is the most decorated men’s tennis player in history when it comes to Grand Slams, but he will be chasing a career first in Paris. Draws for the five tennis events at the 2024 Olympics were announced on Thursday, July 25, the day before the Opening Ceremony.

There’s still room for improvement and plenty of time left to improve. After a change to her coaching team, she won summer titles in Washington and Cincinnati, beating Iga Swiatek for the first time. Then she carved through the US Open field, beating Aryna Sabalenka in the final.

Djokovic will face Australia’s Matthew Ebden to begin the tournament, while Nadal will square off against Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics. The world’s top tennis players are getting ready to run it back at Roland-Garros. The official rankings are updated every Monday, except during the middle of Grand Slam tournaments and Miami + Indian Wells.

Shortly before that, both Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz and British No 1 Jack Draper had separately attacked the sport’s packed schedule, with Alcaraz saying “it’s going to kill us in some way”, and Draper calling the status quo “mental”. „It’s a weird thing, but I think tennis is different than other sports because of it,“ Alcaraz said of their shared commute. „Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner put on such a great, entertaining show. To me, it’s up there with the absolute best sporting events ever. The 37-year-old Serbian superstar’s next great rival, 21-year-old Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, has jumped to No. 1 this year with an estimated $42.3 million before taxes and agent’s fees over the last 12 months, dating to the 2023 U.S.

Before coming to Forbes, Knight worked in sports and business news as an editor at the New York Times. He graduated from the University of Missouri with degrees in journalism and economics. Follow Knight for deep dives into the dollars driving the sports world.

Below are links to the latest ATP and WTA rankings for singles and doubles. The site primarily focuses on the men’s game but also covers the financials of the sports, equipment reviews, strings, and every tournament at Grand Slam, 1000, and 500 level. Since then it’s gone on to be one of the largest independently owned website for tennis news and a platform for fans to share their views on the game.

The best part of the game is probably how fast it is and watching it live, you can appreciate how good they are. You can follow it on television, but when you’re sitting courtside and trying to follow the ball it’s impossible. I had the chance to try and return one of Novak’s serves and that was impossible. Unusually for the incestuous world of tennis, the 44-year-old Nassar has worked at a high level in other sports, including the NFL. His mentor was David Stern – formerly the commissioner of the US’s biggest basketball league – and he brings Stern’s can-do attitude to his present post.

But he also lost four straight matches at one point during the American summer swing and dropped back out of the top 50. The 6-footer has a slightly less consistent version of Paul’s game, but he can mix it up with just about anyone outside the top 10. Paul made the most of a favorable Australian Open draw to charge to the semis, then pulled off his best win of the season — a three-setter over Carlos Alcaraz — to reach the semifinals in Toronto. He might have the best return game of any American, but at 6-foot-1 his service game isn’t nearly as big.

This year, the players have found themselves busier than ever, thanks to the inclusion of the Olympic tennis event on the schedule and the fact that matches are running longer and longer. Meanwhile the ATP have extended Masters 1000 tournaments to two weeks and the WTA have bumped up the number of mandatory events from four to 10. 2023 has been an amazing year in tennis, complete with record-setting performances on both the men’s and women’s sides. From Novak Djokovic putting his 24th grand slam title in the record books to Coco Gauff’s US Open finals three-set stunner, fans were treated to moments that will go down in history. Winners of the men’s singles and doubles grand slam tournaments receive 2,000 points with the runner-up receiving 1,300 points.

As Nassar told Telegraph Sport, tennis’s ongoing inertia is a far bigger problem for the players than it is for the various powerbrokers – most of whom are too busy with day-to-day firefighting to look at the sport as a whole. It might be presumptuous putting the teenager here instead of more established players such as Mackenzie McDonald or Marcos Giron. The big-serving, 6-foot-4 Michelsen took down both McDonald and John Isner on his way to the Newport finals in July. Success on the challenger and futures circuits bumped him into the top 100 and earned him a spot in the year-end NextGen finals. We talk a lot about ceilings in a piece like this, and for a while it felt as if Gauff had found hers. She spent most of a year ranked either seventh or eighth in the world, and from August 2021 through May 2023, she went just 3-15 against top-10 opponents.

But he’s also only 26, and if his now-lengthy injury history was more bad luck than a sign of things to come, he’s got plenty of time to again establish himself as a top-30 or so presence. He checked that one off at the Australian Open, his second Slam. The ultra-athletic, 6-foot-4 Shelton might have the most upside in the American player pool. The tour adjusted to him in the spring and summer, and he found another gear in the fall. When health, form and motivation all collide, Stephens remains a tough out.