British No1 Cameron Norrie has described Novak Djokovic’s fast-track entry to the ATP Finals as “unfair”, after Djokovic was granted a place due to his Wimbledon victory while all other players saw their rankings points stripped.
In what is unfolding as a case of double-standards from the ATP Tour, Djokovic stands to benefit from his triumph this summer by securing a place at November’s prestigious Finals event in Turin.
The debate is the latest after-shock to develop from the All England Club’s controversial decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players from this year’s Wimbledon.
The professional tours responded by withdrawing ranking points from the tournament, thus undermining the chances of players like Norrie and Nick Kyrgios – who reached the semi-finals and finals respectively – of qualifying for Turin.
But the ATP didn’t cancel the small print which gives anyone who wins a grand slam – even Wimbledon 2022 – direct entry into the ATP Finals that same year.
“Djokovic obviously qualified [for Turin] from Wimbledon so that seems a bit strange, but that’s the way it is,” said Norrie, who scored a crushing 6-2, 6-4 victory over world No29 Miomir Kecmanovic in Monday. “It seems unfair [to me, and] I guess for [Nick] Kyrgios as well. He lost the final and he gets nothing.”
As the world’s best players gather in Paris this week to fight over the final two places in the eight-man field for Turin, Djokovic’s rivals are now waking up to the ATP’s contradictory stance. Did Wimbledon happen – from the perspective of the wider tennis world – or didn’t it? At the moment, we seem to be dealing with Schrodinger’s Tournament.
Had Norrie been able to count the usual 720 points for his semi-final run at SW19, he would now be pushing for eighth place in the so-called “Race to Turin”, rather than finding himself in a corner at No12. “I think I have to win the tournament [in Paris],” he said this week, when asked if he still had hopes of travelling to Turin as one of the two alternates who stand by in case of injury.
Norrie was not the only man querying the ATP’s position. We also heard from Taylor Fritz, the American No1 who needs to reach the Paris final if he wants to be among the eight starters in Turin. (At the moment, Fritz is one of four players – the others being Felix Auger Aliassime, Andrey Rublev and Hubert Hurkacz – who are fighting for the last two places.)
“I believe Djokovic should be at the Finals, a hundred per cent,” Fritz told Telegraph Sport. “Also, it’s fine not to count the [Wimbledon] points towards the rankings. But I just feel like if he’s going to be getting in off winning Wimbledon, we should probably be counting Wimbledon points towards the Race. That would probably be a fair solution.”
Meanwhile, Kyrgios’s agent Stuart Duguid pointed out that there will be significant financial repercussions for players who might – in a normal year – have been able to contend more strongly for a place at the ATP Finals.
“First and foremost, Novak deserves to be in Turin,” said Duguid. “But it feels arbitrary that he is the only player to benefit from his performances at Wimbledon. Surely, by the same token, Nick’s Wimbledon final should count as well, which would put him right in the mix.
“If someone had the motivation, this anomaly could be susceptible to a governance challenge,” added Duguid. “Players’ endorsement contracts are affected by their year-end ranking and whether or not they qualify for the ATP Finals. Many – such as Nick – will be out of pocket, whereas Novak has been made whole.”
None of these awkward scenarios had been conceived of in May, when the two tours took the provocative decision to strip points from Wimbledon. Djokovic’s fellow singles champion, Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, did not earn qualification to this week’s WTA Finals because there is no equivalent rule for grand-slam champions on the women’s tour.
In a statement, the ATP said “The grand-slam champion qualification rule for the Nitto ATP Finals has been in place since 2000 … The removal of ranking points at this year’s Wimbledon was done on the basis of fairness to all players, and no further rule changes linked to the competition’s status were deemed necessary.”
It feels ironic – and somehow typical of this turbulent tennis year – that Djokovic’s rejection of the Covid vaccine has also brought us to this unsatisfactory conclusion to 2022. Had he been able to compete at the Australian Open or the US Open, he would almost certainly have won qualification to Turin via ranking points. As it is, he could still do so if he wins Paris this week.
From a British perspective, the damage from Wimbledon’s points fiasco could well continue into next year. The 2023 season is due to start with a new and lucrative team competition – the United Cup – in Australia, which brings male and female players together to play for their countries in an expansion of the old Hopman Cup format.
Great Britain now find themselves fighting to be one of the 18 nations involved. The selection is made via a complex calculation involving the rankings of each country’s top male and top female player. Should Norrie go on to reach the semi-finals in Paris at the end of this week, Britain’s chances will be strong. But it would all have been a lot easier if Wimbledon had offered rankings points this summer.
Meanwhile, in Monday’s evening session in Paris, Andy Murray served for the match against old foe Gilles Simon – a 37-year-old Frenchman playing his last professional tournament – but was broken and wound up going down to a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 defeat. Afterwards, Murray said that he had been suffering cramps from as early as 2-2 in the second set, which has been a frustrating theme of his season since Wimbledon.