Novak Djokovic and the rest of the ATP Player Council approve of new ranking system

Tennis has been at a standstill ever since the COVID-19 pandemic took over the world. And while the tour is yet to resume, the ATP recently announced a revised ranking system to account for the unusual circumstances. It has now emerged that the new rules were approved by every member of the ATP player council, including their President Novak Djokovic.

The ATP rankings have been frozen since the scheduled start of the now-cancelled Indian Wells Masters - 16 March 2020. The ATP announced their new ranking system a couple of days ago, where points would be calculated over a period of 22 months rather than the traditional 52 weeks. This aims to safeguard every player on tour, even if they skip some tournaments owing to health and safety concerns.

Novak Djokovic, who has been under immense scrutiny lately because of what happened during the Adria Tour, spoke about the new rankings rules on Wednesday after completing his quarantine period. The 17-time Grand Slam champion announced that he and the rest of the Council had unanimously approved the new system, given how fair it is.

We wanted to protect the players: Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic shall retain the points he won from last year's Wimbledon title

Speaking to a Serbian website, the World No. 1 elaborated upon his thoughts regarding the resumption of the US Open and other tournaments as well as the new ranking system. On the latter issue, Djokovic said:

“We discussed it in the Council and that decision was made because we wanted to protect the players that don’t want to put themselves to risk and to travel.”

Djokovic says he fully supports the efforts to hold tournaments and thinks the new ranking-system is the best solution. He spoke to @Sportski_Zurnal and my colleague Vojin Veličković. Quotes👇 pic.twitter.com/hOXj1xp9VO

— Saša Ozmo (@ozmo_sasa) July 8, 2020

The ATP Player Council is made up of the likes of Jurgen Melzer, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, vice-president Kevin Anderson, John Isner, Sam Querrey, Yen-Hsun Lu, Vasek Pospisil, Bruno Soares, Colin Dowdeswell and their President, Novak Djokovic.

Djokovic and his fellow Council members are fully aware of the unique situation, and in particular the difficulty of navigating the packed schedule over the next few months. As such, the option of returning to the tour as and when they want without facing the prospect of losing ranking points was welcomed with open arms.

Novak Djokovic tops the current ATP rankings

“Some won’t play until the end of 2020 and in this way the list protects them, they are not losing points. On the other hand, players who play will have a chance to earn new points. In this situation, I believe it was the best option," Djokovic added.

Novak Djokovic himself stands to benefit a lot from this new ranking system. He will be able to keep the 2000 points that he won by winning the Paris Masters and Madrid Open last year, since a player no longer needs to defend his points in order to retain them. The Serb will also retain the 2000 points he won at Wimbledon as the tournament was cancelled altogether.

Novak Djokovic is the odds-on favorite to hold the year-end World No. 1 spot, which means he would also get closer to breaking Roger Federer's all-time record of most weeks at No. 1.

Djokovic says he and the ATP player council approved the new ranking system: best compromise in his view (even if it might hurt him in the all-time No. 1 race) because it protects player who can't or don't want to play until the end of 2020 https://t.co/GusmZAzu6W

— Christopher Clarey (@christophclarey) July 8, 2020

ATP's new ranking system seems like a wise move, with every player getting some help or the other. That is why most would agree that Novak Djokovic and the rest of the Player Council did the right thing by approving the change without hesitation.