WTA ANNOUNCES REVISED WTA RANKING SYSTEM
ST. PETERSBURG, FL, USA – The WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) announced today the temporary adjustments and revisions to the WTA Rankings for singles and doubles players as the Tour prepares to return to play. The WTA Rankings represent a calculation of a player’s recent tournament results, evaluating each player’s standing among the world’s best players and are the basis for tournament entry and seeding in respective draws.
Traditionally, the WTA Rankings are based on a 52-week system with results from a player’s best 16 tournaments for singles and 11 for doubles. Points from the Grand Slams, the Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen, and WTA Premier Mandatory and Premier 5 tournaments yield the highest ranking points.
Upon suspension of play due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the WTA Rankings became frozen as of March 16, 2020, allowing ranking points to extend beyond the traditional 52-week window so that a player’s world ranking would not be impacted due to the suspension.
Since the implementation of the frozen rankings, the WTA Tour’s Players’ Council and Tournament Council underwent an extensive review of the ranking process in order to identify the necessary adjustments upon returning to play. In order to balance fairness and flexibility for all players, the WTA Rankings will generally follow the “Better of 2019 and 2020” point model, in alignment with the ATP Tour.
In reaching this decision, various elements were considered including the provisional 2020 revised calendar, various travel restrictions, varying levels of player comfort of traveling to compete, as well as the elimination of player commitment requirements for the remainder of 2020.
Under the revised system, a player’s ranking will be comprised of her best 16 results in singles and best 11 results in doubles based on the points earned between March 2019 through December 2020. A player’s ranking breakdown will include the “Better of 2019 and 2020” points earned at Tour-level and Grand Slam events. Further, a player may not count the same WTA Tour or Grand Slam level result twice in her ranking breakdown. Tour-level points added in 2020 will drop after the event is scheduled to be played again in 2021 or after 52 weeks, whichever is earlier.
WTA FINALS QUALIFICATIONS
The Porsche Race to Shenzhen Leaderboard, used to determine the singles and doubles qualifiers for the Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen, will also have some adjustments for 2020. A player’s 16-best results from 2020 tournaments will contribute to a player’s Race Points with the Top 8 players qualifying for the WTA Finals, while a doubles team will count its 11-best results from 2020 with the Top 8 teams qualifying.
