Taylor Fritz is the current American No. 1 player on the ATP Tour, but he'll lose that mantle because of his participation at the 2024 Olympic Games.
Fritz first rose to become the top-ranked American male player in April 2021. It proved to be a breakthrough season for him despite his inability to win any titles. He finished the year with the best ranking of No. 23.
In the last couple of years, Fritz has placed more emphasis on improving his ATP ranking. Things most certainly fell into place in 2022, with Fritz ending Rafael Nadal's 20-match winning streak to win the Indian Wells Masters and break into the Top 10 for the first time.
Fritz reclaimed his status as the American No. 1 after he momentarily lost it and held onto it for over a year. It was not until April 2024 that Ben Shelton ended his monopoly.
The 21-year-old lefty unexpectedly clinched his first ATP title on clay in Houston. This coincided with Fritz's worst sequence of results when he lost three matches in a row and fell outside the Top 10, dropping as low as 15th.
A productive clay-court swing, which included a runner-up finish in Munich, a semifinal run in Madrid, and a quarterfinal run in Rome, returned him back to the elite and the USA's best male player.
The 26-year-old Californian bagged his second title of the season in Eastbourne and was a quarterfinalist at Wimbledon. He stood within a spot of a Top 10 return.
But because of his involvement in the Olympic Games, which begin on July 27th and will run for the next week, Fritz will drop valuable ranking points.
Who Will Become the New American No. 1?
There won't be any ranking points on offer in the Olympic tennis tournament. Additionally, the playing surface is one of the primary reasons why some players opted not to pursue a medal in Paris. Ben Shelton is among those who returned home to compete on hard courts.
For the second time in his career, Tommy Paul will replace Fritz as the new American No. 1 player. Fritz will lose the full 250 points from winning the Atlanta Open last year and semifinal points from the Citi Open.
That is because he is not defending his title this week and won't play in Washington next week as the tournament clashes with the Olympic Games.
Paul has been in this position before, replacing Fritz as the American No. 1 after winning the ATP 500 at Queen's, but his stay only lasted a week. He will get to sit at the top of the tree again as he will drop fewer points between now and the start of the Canadian Open.
Like his compatriot, the 27-year-old from New Jersey is playing in his first Olympics. At the summer hard-court swing in North America, he can achieve a lot, one of which is a potential Top 10 spot for the first time in his career.
Fritz and Paul will both be defending 630 points on the hard courts of Canada and the US, and it will be an intriguing battle on how their rankings will unfold by the end of the US Open. Shelton will also be in this conversation if his results are better than those of his countrymen.
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