ATP Rankings Comparison 2012 to 2013: Who Were the Big Movers

Most tennis fans will be aware of the change at the top of the year end ATP rankings, with Rafael Nadal reclaiming the number one position from Novak Djokovic in October 2013.  However you might not know all of the other major changes in the year end rankings between 2012 and 2013. Read on to find out who entered and exited the top ten, top 20 and other major movements.

2013 Year End Top Ten

(2012 year end position is in brackets)

• 1 Rafael Nadal (4)
• 2 Novak Djokovic (1)
• 3 David Ferrer (5)
• 4 Andy Murray (3)
• 5 JuanMartin DelPotro (7)
• 6 Roger Federer (2)
• 7 Tomas Berdych (6)
• 8 Stanislas Wawrinka (17)
• 9 Richard Gasquet (10)
• 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (8)

Wawrinka was the only new member of the 2013 year end top ten compared to 2012. Janko Tipsarevic dropped out of the top ten finishing 2013 at number 36 in the rankings.

Federer’s fall from 2 to 6 was the only other substantial change in the order of the top ten.

2013 Year End Positions 11 to 20

• 11 Milos Raonic (13)
• 12 Tommy Haas (21)
• 13 Nicolas Almagro (11)
• 14 John Isner (14)
• 15 Mikhail Youzhny (25)
• 16 Fabio Fognini (45)
• 17 Kei Nishikori (19)
• 18 Tommy Robredo (115)
• 19 Gilles Simon (16)
• 20 Kevin Anderson (37)

Compared to the top ten there was far more movement in positions 11 to 20. Five players made it into the top 20 – Haas, Youzhny, Fognini, Robredo and Anderson.

In our opinion, the most impressive increase in rankings was Robredo. He finished 2012 ranked 115 after two years of being affected by injuries. Victories at Casablanca and Umag and reaching the quarter-finals at Roland Garros and the US Open contributed to the climb of 97 places in the rankings.

Fognini also had a great year, increasing 29 places. This was mainly due to a good clay court season winning two titles, Hamburg and Stuttgart, and making the final at Umag.

In addition to Tipsarevic the other four players to fall out of the top 20 were:

• 42 Juan Monaco (12)
• 37 Marin Cilic (15)
• 57 Alexandr Dolgopolov (18)
• 22 Philipp Kohlschreiber (20)

Dolgopolov’s fall in rankings is the most pronounced and in my opinion surprising out of the players who dropped out of the top 20. Dolgopolov had a great 2012 winning at Washington and making the final at Brisbane and Umag. However, in 2013 Dolgopolov’s best result was making the semi-final at Winston-Salem. Wonder how he’ll go in Australia in January?

Notable Players who dropped out of the top 50

• 380 Mardy Fish (27)
• 108 Martin Klizan (30)
• 125 Thomaz Bellucci (33)
• 87 Marcos Baghdatis (36)
• 75 Viktor Troicki (38)
• 53 Nikolay Davydenko (44)
• 110 David Goffin (46)
• 61 Marinko Matosevic (49)
• 81 Lukas Lacko (50)

Injury and illness was the reason for some players fall in the rankings, such as Mardy Fish, who played few tournaments due to heart related conditions and David Goffin who broke his wrist in September. For the other players poor results were the main factor.

Players who climbed 20+ places into the top 50

• 23 Grigor Dimitrov (48)
• 24 Ernests Gulbis (139)
• 26 Benoit Paire (47)
• 29 Dmitry Tursunov (125)
• 31 Gael Monfils (78)
• 32 Vasek Pospisil (127)
• 33 Ivan Dodig (73)
• 41 Carlos Berlocq (67)
• 47 Lukas Rosol (74)
• 49 Joao Sousa (99)
• 50 Nicolas Mahut (107)

Basis for the increase in their rankings

Dimitrov made his first ATP final at the 2013 Brisbane International. Later in 2013 Dimitrov claimed his first title winning at Stockholm.

The last few years have been a rollercoaster ride for Gulbis’ ranking from a low of 99 in Feb 2010 to a high of 21 in Feb 2011 to a low of 159 Oct 2012 back up to 24 at the end of 2013. Victories at Delray Beach, where he came through three rounds of qualifying, and St Petersburg helped re-establish Gulbis in the top 25.

Tursunov was consistent throughout 2013 making numerous quarterfinals and semi-finals at Marseille, Washington and Valencia.

Paire made the final at Montpellier losing to Gasquet and several semi-finals including at Rome where he was defeated by Federer.

Monfils (Lamonf) is rising back-up through the rankings making two finals in 2013 at Winston-Salem and Nice. Injuries over the last two years have seen Lamonf drop in the rankings from a career high of 7 (July 2011) to a low of 119 (May 2013). Hopefully his comeback will continue in 2014.

The highlight of Pospisil’s year was making the semi-final of the Masters 1000 event at Montreal, where he was defeated by Milos Raonic. Pospisil also made it to the semifinals at Bogota and Basel.

Dodig made three semi-finals in 2013 at Munich, Eastbourne and Tokyo.

Victory at Bastad over Fernando Verdasco was the highlight of Berlocq’s 2013.

Rosol won his first ATP final at Bucharest.

Sousa was another first time winner on the ATP circuit in 2013 at Kuala Lumpur defeating Julien Benneteau in the final. Sousa was also a semi-finalist at St Petersburg.

Grass was the surface for Mahut in 2013, maybe he picked up a thing or two in his marathon match against Isner at Wimbledon in 2010, winning Newport and s-Hertogenbosch.

Players who made a massive jump to enter the top 100

• 59 Adrian Mannarino (188)
• 64 Pablo Carreno Busta (654)
• 66 Michal Przysiezny (266)
• 76 Teymuraz Gabashvili (182)
• 85 Jiri Vesely (260)
• 86 Julian Reister (294)
• 90 Somdev Devvarman (664)
• 91 Alejandro Gonzalez (243)
• 93 Oleksandr Nedovyesov (205)
• 97 Bradley Klahn (250)

Spaniard Carreno Busta is one to watch in 2014. Named most improved player of 2013 by the Spanish Tennis Writers Association, Carreno Busta rose an impressive 590 places from 654 at the end of 2012. Although Carreno Busta mainly played Challenger and Futures tournaments in 2013, he did reach the semi-finals at the ATP 250 event at Oeiras, losing to Stanislas Wawrinka.

Rankings source from ATPworldtour.com. 2013 year end rankings as at 9 December 2013 and 2012 year end rankings as at 19 November 2012.

Who are you going to keep an eye for potential upsets in the Australian Open draw?

Until next time

Grand Slam Gal