Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Australia celebrated its first world No.1 tennis player in 16 years last year. Ashleigh Barty became the first Australian woman to make it to the top since Evonne Goolagong-Cawley in 1976; and she was the first Australian since Lleyton Hewitt in 2003. Barty’s storied rise, after a sabbatical that included a stint playing cricket, offers an interesting insight into the numbers behind tennis. On the comeback trail in May 2016, Barty was unranked and threw caution to the wind by qualifying for a low-level $50,000 tournament in Eastbourne in southern England. Three qualifying and three main-draw wins later, she was back in business with a handful of points – and a ranking of 623. By the end of the year, she had halved her ranking. She cracked the top 100, at No.92, in March 2017 after winning her maiden WTA title in Kuala Lumpur. By the end of that year, she was entrenched inside the top 20. In June 2019, her win against German Julia Gorges at the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham – two weeks after her triumph at the French Open – tipped her into top place on the rankings. "You always dream about [being number one] as a little kid," she said after the match, "but, for it to become a reality, it's incredible and not something that was even in my realm – we were aiming for top 10 this year." So how does the rankings system work? And what difference will a win or loss make for players at the Australian Open?


Why do rankings matter? They can be a career goal, fans identify with them and they offer tournament organisers – and, importantly, sponsors – a guide as to who to recognise the most. In all sports, a player’s trophy cabinet is an important gauge of their success but in tennis, a high ranking means credibility. The great Roger Federer holds the record for the most total weeks (310) at the top of the rankings and the most consecutive weeks at No.1 (237). Track the chart below to witness Federer's remarkable record since the turn of the millennium and see who else got to top spot. Rankings matter partly because the tennis season is almost never-ending. There are peaks across the year, such as the four majors, including the Australian Open, but no real finish line. Tennis players must constantly "defend their points" when they rock up at each tournament, although a year-end ranking does hold the greatest prestige.


The season, officially at least, ended with the ATP Finals (Association of Tennis Professionals) in London in November and WTA Finals (the Women's Tennis Association), in Shenzhen in China, in late October. The current men's world No.1, Rafael Nadal, has earned the year-end distinction for a fifth time. Major wins at Roland-Garros and the US Open in 2019 went a long way to drive him to the top again. (His total of 19 majors, one shy of Roger Federer's record, has ensured his legendary standing in the game.) But a world No.1 ranking can also be a burden. If you haven't also won a major,it can feed the best-player-yet-to-win-a-major narrative. The just-retired Dane Caroline Wozniacki didn't win a grand slam until the 2018 Australian Open, nearly eight years after she first reached No.1. Track who has made it to the top in women's tennis since 2000 in the chart below. Some familiar names spent a lot of time there: Martina Hingis, Justine Henin and Serena Williams. The player with the record for the most total weeks at the top of the rankings is the great German Steffi Graf (377); and the high-water mark for the most consecutive weeks at No.1 is shared by Graf and Williams (186). Illie Nastase wins the French Open in 1973. Credit:Getty Images


How did rankings begin and are they fair? Tennis used to operate on a 'star' system, before rankings began. Romanian Ilie Nastase was the first men’s world No.1 after official rankings started in the men's game in 1973. Nastase held the position for 40 weeks before Australian John Newcombe had his turn, spending eight weeks at the top. The women's tour started with official rankings in 1975. American Chris Evert was the first women's world No.1 while Goolagong-Cawley had a two-week stint the following year. 'It was totally subjective; there was no transparency and the livelihood of the players was at the whim of politics.' Mike Estep, former professional tennis player Australia also boasts the youngest ever men's world No.1 – Hewitt in 2001 (20 years and eight months) while Newcombe in 1974 (when he was 30) held the record as the oldest world No.1 after his two-month reign. World No.1s in their 30s have been commonplace this past decade as the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic triumvirate still dominates the skyline. The move to computerised rankings in the 1970s has been cited as one of the key moments in tennis history.A transparent points system was seen as a fair representation of a player's performance and provided an objective measurement for entry to tournaments. Under old methods, rankings were generated by national associations and individual tournaments. Those who ran the events could invite whoever they wanted to play. "It was totally subjective; there was no transparency and the livelihood of the players was at the whim of politics," Mike Estep, who oversaw the ATP Tour's rankings system during most of the 1980s, told USA Today in 2013.


A leading player in the early 1970s, Stan Smith, recalled how it worked: "Some players would be on a list as players that could help sell tickets for the event and they would have priority over others in acceptance into tournaments," he told the ATP Tour website in 2013. "This caused great concern for those that didn’t have a big name and were borderline getting into events. There were definitely some battles with tournaments over this star system." Chris Evert defends her Wimbledon title with a double-handed backhand. Credit:Getty Images How do rankings work? A player’s ranking is determined by the points they’ve accumulated over the previous 12 months. It’s a rolling measurement, explaining why tennis commentators often talk about players defending points. The rankings are recalculated and reissued almost every week and are published on Mondays. The more important a tournament is – and how far a player is likely to progress in said tournament – the more points up for grabs. Points are dropped 52 weeks after they were first awarded. In men's tennis, the rankings formula is determined by calculating, for each player, his total points from the majors – the Australian, French and US opens and Wimbledon – plus eight mandatory Masters 1000 tournaments, and his best six results from all ATP Tour 500, ATP Tour 250, Challenger Tour and Futures tournaments. The system is similar in the women's game. The WTA Tour is also based on a rolling 52-week, cumulative system. A player's ranking is determined by her results at a maximum of 16 tournaments for singles (and 11 tournaments for doubles). Those 16 tournaments must include the four majors, the four premier mandatory events – Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing – and the season-ending WTA Finals.


On January 8, for example, Rafael Nadal had 9985 points, followed by Novak Djokovic on 9055. Women's No.1 Barty had 7851 points, ahead of Karolina Pliskova on 5525. This chart outlines the points that can be picked up at the slams. What's the difference between rankings and seedings? Rankings are a universal measurement of a player's spot whereas seedings are tournament-specific. The confusion can stem from the fact that a tournament rarely deviates from the rankings list when determining seedings. It can, and does, happen at Wimbledon, however. There the seeds are still the top 32 players according to rankings, but the seedings order is determined by a formula that takes into account how players have gone on grass in the previous 12 months. Seedings do matter. At the majors – where the top 32 players are seeded in both the men’s and women’s draws – a seeded player can’t meet another seed any earlier than the third round (the time when the field has been whittled down to the final 32 players). That's why you hear of a top player on the comeback trail – and out of seedings range – referred to a "dangerous floater" or an "unseeded threat" who other players will want to avoid too early in a tournament. Roger Federer wipes away tears after defeating Croatia's Marin Cilic, left, to win the Australian Open and achieve a grand slam record in 2018. Credit:DITA ALANGKARA What's a wildcard then? Wildcards are a different game altogether. Numerous tournaments, including the Australian Open, have discretionary power to issue entry to individuals irrespective of their ranking. This is often a reward for younger players on the rise or perhaps a nod to an older player with crowd-drawing history. The Australian Open has eight wildcard spots in the men's and women's draws, so there are three paths to a singles spot at that slam; a player can receive a main draw position based on their ranking, wildcard status or through qualifying. At last year's Australian Open, four of the eight wildcard spots in the men's draw (and three on the women's side) were "internal selections". One wildcard spot each for men and women is also allocated to the winner of Australia's wildcard playoff – a mini-tournament held at Melbourne Park in December. Andy Murray after hip surgery in Melbourne in 2018. What happens if you're injured or have a baby? "Protected rankings" give players some compensation if they’ve been sidelined for a long time. On the ATP Tour, players can lobby the executive chairman and president for entry protection when they are injured and do not compete in an event for at least six months. Britain's Andy Murray has been using his protected ranking recently because of a hip injury.This has allowed Murray, who climbed to world No.1 three years ago before plummeting to 839 in the middle of 2018, to play in big tournaments. Murray planned to use this provision in the ATP Cup – a new men's team tournament in Australia in January – followed by the Australian Open but pulled out of his trip Down Under after a setback. Serena Williams takes a selfie with husband Alexis Ohanian and Alexis Olympia. before the first round of the Fed Cup in 2018. Credit:AP In women's tennis, players can take time out to have children. The "special ranking rule" allows players to "freeze" their ranking, and if that ranking is high enough awards them a seeding at major tournaments when they return. One player who has returned to the tour as a mother, Victoria Azarenka, welcomed the changes. “Our players should feel comfortable and confident to take time away from the courts to have a family or recover from injury and I think these new rules support that,” said Azarenka. So far, there's no evidence that men on the tour are seeking similar provisions to assist with the demands of parenthood.