World No. 1 Novak Djokovic faces a ranking slide after Wimbledon following the ATP's decision to strip ranking points for competing players at the grass-court major.
Djokovic is the defending champion at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. While he will vie to retain his points at the clay-court Grand Slam for the next two weeks, he doesn't have that privilege at SW19 because of factors beyond his control.
Wimbledon recently banned Russian and Belarusian players who were planning to play at the tournament in late June. The All England Club made the decision in light of the ongoing war in Ukraine, which Russia initiated with help from Belarus.
The decision has not been kindly received, especially by most players and the ATP. The men's governing body referred to the ordeal as equivalent to undermining the integrity of the ranking system. As such, players will not be able to earn ranking points at this year's tournament.
Additionally, those who received points from the 2021 tournament will have those chalked off, rendering Wimbledon literally an exhibition tournament.
Djokovic, who won his sixth Wimbledon last year by beating Matteo Berrettini, will lose the most points. That means he faces a near-certain Top 5 exit by the time 2022 Wimbledon ends, regardless of whether he wins his seventh crown, as he is set to drop 2000 points.
Matteo Berrettini, who played in the final last year, will drop 1200 points as another player who faces a ranking slide. Ironically, this might ensure that Daniil Medvedev takes over the number one spot, as he crashed out in the fourth round 12 months ago.
It's ironic because Medvedev is banned from this year's event due to being Russian but now it seems the tournament actually did him a favour by doing that. Djokovic was one of the players that did not want to see the event stripped of its points saying that there were better ways. Perhaps he was aware of what it meant for him.
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