Novak Djokovic’s bid to regain the No. 1 ranking in the world got a boost when Juan Martin Del Potro upset Rafael Nadal on Saturday. One day later, Djokovic will attempt to win back-to-back titles at this event–but Del Potro stands in his way.
Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin Del Potro will be facing each other for the 13th time in their careers when they battle for the Shanghai Rolex Masters title on Sunday afternoon.
Djokovic leads the head-to-head series 9-3, including 6-2 on hard courts. Although it is skewed rather heavily in the Serb’s favor, this matchup often produces some of the most entertaining tennis on tour. The second set of Djokovic’s 6-2, 7-6(3), 6-4 U.S. Open victory in 2012 was arguably the best of the year. His 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-7(6), 6-3 Wimbledon semifinal triumph over Del Potro this summer was unquestionably one of the most memorable matches of 2013.
They have squared off on two other occasions this season, both prior to their All-England Club showdown. Djokovic prevailed 6-3, 7-6(4) in the Dubai semifinals before Del Potro advanced to the Indian Wells title match with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 upset.
The defending champion in Shanghai, Djokovic has always been a force during the Asian swing and this time around is no different. He beat Rafael Nadal in last week’s Beijing final and there are no signs of the world No. 2 slowing down. Djokovic earned his place in the championship match with scalps of Marcel Granollers, Fabio Fognini, Gael Monfils, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga–dropping only one set to Monfils in the process.
Del Potro got a third-round withdrawal from Tommy Haas, but to say his spot in the title match is well-deserved would be an understatement. After taking care of Philipp Kohlschreiber and Nicolas Almagro, the fifth-ranked Argentine put on an incredible display to hammer Nadal 6-2, 6-4 on Saturday. Like Djokovic, Del Potro is also coming off a title last week. He hoisted the Tokyo winner’s trophy to improve his 2013 record to 43-13. Djokovic, meanwhile, is 61-9 for the year.
Anything close to the level Del Potro showcased against Nadal will be enough to at least snag a set if not win the whole match. However, that would invoke memories of David Nalbandian’s run to the 2007 Madrid title; it’s not something you see every day. Djokovic will play closer to the baseline than Nadal did and his defense combined with his defense-to-offense transition prowess should eventually break down the underdog.
Pick: Djokovic in 3
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Sorry I meant to say – I honestly DON’T feel the need to defend Rafa.
Also in the last paragraph – I said “perspective” twice in the same sentence. Duh! 🙂
Tennis-x.com
NNY, your post on Oct 13, 707 pm
“He will feel even more confident now with back-to-back wins at Beijing and Shanghai and also defending 1500 points. That was key for him to even have a chance to get back to #1.”
Sorry I might have misunderstood but it seems to me from this post that you are a little confused about how defending points works.
Defending points has no relevance to year end ranking as year end ranking consists only of points won this year.
If you were talking of 52 week rolling ranking no. 1 for which defending points is relevant, there is no way Nole can get to No. 1 by defending points as (i) his rolling points cannot increase by defending points and (ii) Rafa has no points to defend so Rafa’s rolling points cannot decrease.. So for the rolling ranking, defending points by Nole cannot get him back to no. 1 as it cannot decrease the lead which Rafa has on him.
So for the record what did you mean by your above post?
@holdserve re defending points:
Yes, confusing to say the least. But anything that puts Rafa in the underdog corner appeals to some people.
I wish that some people would let me speak for myself.
holdserve,
Now to address your question so that I can speak on my own behalf, without someone else putting words in my mouth that have nothing to do with what I mean or what I think.
To be honest, the discussion was very confusing. That’s why I said that I wanted some clarity at one point. Djoker needs to defend his points to get the #1 ranking back. Is that not correct? Not the year end #1 ranking. They are two different things.
Ricky clarified everything for me and the confusion was cleared up. I wanted to know what Rafa had to do in order to get the #1 year end ranking. I also wanted to know what Djoker had to do in order to get the #1 year end ranking.
Hopefully we can move on and put this to rest. 🙂
Maybe, an analogy helps: Each player has two pots of marbles. One is the ranking pot, the other one is the race pot. Both pots contain marbles of three different colours: Blue for hard court wins, red for clay and green for gras court wins (maybe also deep sea blue for indoor hard court). The race pot is empty at the beginning of the season. With each tourney played, it fills up with the marbles won there. The ranking pot is always full with the marbles won over 365 days. When a tourney is finished, the marbles won there last year are taken out, and the marbles won there this year are added. When the player doesn’t take part in a tourney, he played last year, the marbles are simply taken out. While the ranking pot fluctuates, the race pot is simply filling up over the course of the season. At the beginning of the season, the ranking pot reflects the overall level of a player much better than the race pot, which is only filled with marbles of the seasonal colours. That’s, why Rafa’s race pot has been the fullest after June for many years now, containing an extraordiarily high amount of red marbles. It’s easy to see, that the level of the ranking pot and the race pot convergence slowly, as the season unfolds. At the end of the season, they contain exactly the same amount and colour mixture. The only complication are adjustments of the race pots, because not all tourneys can be counted, if a player plays more tourneys than can be counted, which makes a lot of sense, because the ATP want to discourage players to win as many marbles as possible by simply playing nonstop. A player like Kafelnikow comes to mind here, who boosted his rankings by playing all the time.
This whole analogy might seem childish, but I think, it helps to picture the whole process. And it’s only a matter of speaking, if NNY says, Nole defended his marbles in China or he won them. Both is correct. Fact is, he had to do so, to preserve his chances for a future No 1 ranking. And that’s all, NNY was saying, I guess 🙂
And congrats to Novak, who earned his marbles in China 🙂
littlefoot,
I would give you a big hug if I could! Thanks so much for your inventive way of explaining it all. I love the two pots of marbles and the different colors representing the different court surfaces.
Thank you for also explaining what I was trying to say. We are getting caught up in word games here. As you said, whether Djoker defended his points or won them, both are correct. That is what I was trying to say. Because if Djoker lost to Rafa in the final a Beijing and did not win the final at Shanghai, then the race for year end #1 would be over and so would his chance to regain the #1 ranking.
Thank you, thank you! 🙂
Well done. A clear and succinct guide – I particularly like the use of visual images to demonstrate the difference.
Woe betide anybody who confuses the two from now on!
Thanks, ed! I think, the only real complication comes from the adjustments made: What tourneys can be counted, and the penalties for madatory tourneys not played for whatever reasons.
Give it a rest guys!!Relax!! Execise in futility worrying when not in your hands at all.
Basically, the Race points are the Year to Date points starting from January and the Ranking points are the 52 week rolling points cumulative from the previous year.
Just go to the ATP website, click on Ranking, select a player, click on Rankings Breakdown and it shows clearly when they earned the points and when the points drop off. Scroll down and click on Race to London to see the Race points. At the end of the year the Race points and the Ranking points become one, although there might be aslight difference for uncountable tournaments which are reflected in the Race points but not the Ranking points. The Race is purely to determine who qualifies for the WTF,
The YE #1 will be the player with the most Race points plus their WTF points which will be virtually the same as the Ranking points.
This table shows clearly, on a spreadsheet, how the Race Points are made up, just scroll down until you see the spreadsheet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_ATP_World_Tour_Finals
i hope people aren’t actually confused by this….
NNY?
(Kidding! Just kidding! I like to do the kiddings, no?)
nadline@October 15, 2013 at 4:26 pm
—At the end of the year the Race points and the Ranking points become one—
They become equal before the WTF – the points from the 2012 WTF will drop BEFORE the 2013 WTF.
The ATP website: “The Emirates ATP Rankings period is the immediate past 52 weeks, except for:
(i) The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, which is dropped on the Monday following the last regular-season ATP event [the Paris Masters] of the following year”
Yes, hilarious!
Oh and I am not going to even bother looking at that link.
Glad to see you have a good sense of humour nny!!!
NNY, even a cyber hug is very nice 🙂
I will look up that link after my morning coffee. Or I might lose my marbles.
NNY,
Abandon ego like our common hero Rafa who learns because he is humble.
Be humble and admit you were confused. There’s no shame in it. There is shame if you stop learning,
Anyway, I guess I am irritable on this point because of all the irrational arguments about how it is advantageous for players not to have played the previous year. How Rafa doesn’t need to win anything now as he has no points to defend and only Nole has to focus on winning as he has to defend points if he wants no. 1 because he won so much last year at this time. That is so annoying!!!
Anyway, I am moving on.
I think I will not visit any forum till the two rankings coincide.
.
My calculation.
Race to be YE #1:
Djoko can earn points :
¤ ATP500 somewhere – 500 (there are 2 tournaments left: Basel and Valencia next week)
¤ Paris – 1000
¤ WTF – 1500
TOTAL: 3000 points
Rafa:
¤ leads today (on Oct.15) with 2060 points in the Race to London
¤ needs to add 945 points (Basel & Paris & WTF) to be YE No.1.
TOTAL: 3005 points
To keep the No.1 spot after that, Rafa should earn 225 points to cover the points Djoko can win in the Davis Cup final in the middle of November.