MEN’S TENNIS UPDATE – ATP PRO TOUR NEWS – BIGGEST MOVERS IN RANKINGS

Written by: Staff on 4th December 2016

MEN'S TENNIS UPDATE - ATP PRO TOUR NEWS - BIGGEST MOVERS IN RANKINGS

epa05151995 Taylor Fritz of the US hits a return shot to Michael Mmoh of the US in their round match of the Memphis Open tennis championship at the Racquet Club of Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, 09 February 2016. EPA/TANNEN MAURY |

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TODAY’S FEATURE

This Year’s Movers — Men, Part II

In our last part, we looked at the men who entered and fell out of the Top Hundred in 2016. This time, we will look at those who had the biggest moves.

Remember, this starts with the rankings from the first week of January and ends with the post-Davis Cup rankings.

Relatively meaningless though it is, here are the twenty players who had the biggest absolute upward moves in 2016:

1. del Potro, rose 552 places, from #590 to #38

2. Monteiro, rose 381 places, from #463 to #82

3. Medvedev, rose 230 places, from #329 to #99

4. F. Mayer, rose 167 places, from #217 to #50

5. Robert, rose 154 places, from #208 to #54

6. M. Zverev, rose 120 places, from #171 to #51

7. Evans, rose 117 places, from #183 to #66

8. Khachanov, rose 99 places, from #152 to #53

9. G. Melzer, rose 98 places, from #166 to #68

9. Fritz, rose 98 places, from #174 to #76

11. Olivo, rose 90 places, from #173 to #83

12. Herbert, rose 89 places, from #167 to #78

13. Pavlasek, rose 85 places, from #160 to #75

14. Bagnis, rose 84 places, from #140 to #56

15. Thompson, rose 75 places, from #154 to #79

16. Youzhny, rose 70 places, from #127 to #57

17. Pouille, rose 63 places, from #78 to #15

18. A. Zverev, rose 59 places, from #83 to #24

19. Edmund, rose 57 places, from #102 to #45

20. Kravchuk, rose 54 places, from #139 to #85

Interesting to see two brothers (the Zverevs) on that list. We also had good years for both Melzers, although Jurgen was too low-ranked at year-end to show up in the list.

Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro returns a ball to Belgium’s David Goffin during their round of sixteen match at the Swiss Indoors tennis tournament at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, 27 October 2016. EPA/GEORGIOS KEFALAS

But with upward moves come downward. Here are the ten worst absolute downward moves. This time, we’ll count down, from tenth-worst to worst:

10. Groth, fell 121 places, from #60 to #181

9. de Bakker, fell 162 places, from #99 to #261

8. Janowicz, fell 224 places, from #57 to #281

7. Munoz de la Nava, fell 281 places, from #75 to #356

6. Robredo, fell 320 places, from #42 to #362

5. Andujar, fell 362 places, from #64 to #426

4. Bolelli, fell 403 places, from #58 to #461

3. Bhambri, fell 441 places, from #93 to #534

2. Kokkinakis, fell infinite places, from #80 to unranked

1. Haider-Maurer, fell infinite places, from #63 to unranked

So our biggest declines (Kokkinakis’s and Haider-Maurer’s) were due to injury, although it’s hard to tell in some cases (e.g. Robredo) if it’s more about age or injury. At least we don’t have to try to explain Ernests Gulbis this time, which we had to do last year….

If we turn to percentage movers, here are the twenty players who had the best upward percentage moves:

1. del Potro, rose 93.6%, from #590 to #38

2. Monteiro, rose 82.3%, from #463 to #82

3. Pouille, rose 80.8%, from #78 to #15

4. Raonic, rose 78.6%, from #14 to #3

5. F. Mayer, rose 77%, from #217 to #50

6. Robert, rose 74%, from #208 to #54

7. A. Zverev, rose 71.1%, from #83 to #24

8. Monfils, rose 70.8%, from #24 to #7

9. M. Zverev, rose 70.2%, from #171 to #51

10. Medvedev, rose 69.9%, from #329 to #99

11. Khachanov, rose 65.1%, from #152 to #53

12. Evans, rose 63.9%, from #183 to #66

13. Bagnis, rose 60%, from #140 to #56

13. Thiem, rose 60%, from #20 to #8

15. G. Melzer, rose 59%, from #166 to #68

16. Kyrgios, rose 56.7%, from #30 to #13

17. Fritz, rose 56.3%, from #174 to #76

18. Granollers, rose 56%, from #84 to #37

19. Edmund, rose 55.9%, from #102 to #45

20. Carreno Busta, rose 55.2%, from #67 to #30

Lots of amazing moves in there — although two of the top five moves (del Potro and Mayer) were the result of time away from the sport. It’s also interesting to see that both Zverevs are again on the list, but this time, Alexander comes up higher. There are several young guns on the list, with Thiem being the highest ranked, but it’s interesting to note that Thiem and Alexander Zverev weren’t the fastest-rising newcomers; Thiago Monteiro and Lukas Pouille were.

The ten players who fell the most are (again, counting down from #10):

10. Munoz de la Nava, fell 374.7%, from #75 to #356

9. Janowicz, fell 393%, from #57 to #281

8. Federer, fell 433.3%, from #3 to #16

7. Anderson, fell 458.3%, from #12 to #67

6. Bhambri, fell 474.2%, from #93 to #534

5. Andujar, fell 565.6%, from #64 to #426

4. Bolelli, fell 694.8%, from #58 to #461

3. Robredo, fell 761.9%, from #42 to #362

2. Kokkinakis, fell infinitely, from #80 to unranked

1. Haider-Maurer, fell infinitely, from #63 to unranked

More than half of those declines are due to injury, either this year or, in some cases, last year but with the players not having managed to recover. But, except for Kokkinakis, most of the injured players are fairly old. It will be a real test to see how well they can come back.