In short, a player’s WTA Singles Ranking is determined by calculating her total ranking points from sixteen tournament results during a rolling, 52-week period, based on how far a player advances in a tournament. Every year, players defend points, so now that the professional tennis season has been suspended from March 9th, ahead of the BNP Paribas Open, and we will have no play until at least June 8th, the question arises: “How will we deal with the ranking points when the coronavirus pandemic is over?”
In the joint WTA and ATP statement released yesterday, the tours said that “rankings will be frozen”. The WTA has now clarified what that actually means:
A Frozen Ranking means a player’s ranking as of March 9, 2020 will remain in place until play resumes. Points earned during the 2019 Indian Wells tournament will remain on a player’s ranking, as well as the points earned across all levels in the weeks that followed through March 9, 2020.
In short, a player’s Frozen Ranking includes all points earned from 2019 Indian Wells through March 9, 2020.
So, players won’t be penalized for not having an opportunity to defend their 2019 points. This really works in the 2019 BNP Paribas Open champion Bianca Andreescu’s favor, who had already withdrawn from the tournament due to a persistent left knee injury, as the Canadian will now retain her points from the Premier Mandatory event a year ago, while otherwise she would have dropped outside of the Top 10.
But the question remains: “Will the ranking points drop off before the same period in 2021?” The WTA statement doesn’t say much:
The WTA Player and Tournament Councils, WTA leadership team, along with the ATP and ITF, continue to work on the process moving forward.
Since the rankings are frozen, we can assume that Ashleigh Barty’s current weeks at the top will not count towards her total at the No.1 ranking.
The Top 20 Singles at the time rankings were frozen
If nothing changes in the meantime, the first WTA tournaments after resumption of play will be the International grasscourt events in s’Hertogenbosch and Nottingham, which are currently scheduled to begin on June 8th.
