How can Novak Djokovic improve to 5th in ATP Rankings despite not playing in Montreal?
ATP
Novak Djokovic is currently sixth in the ATP Rankings, and the experienced Serbian could face a huge drop as he's not expected to play in the following weeks.
Currently, the 21-time Grand Slam champion is not allowed to enter Canada and the United States. Therefore, he will almost certainly miss at least three big events.
Two of those are the ATP Masters 1000 events in Montreal and Cincinnati and also the 2022 US Open, where Djokovic defends the final. Last year, he was on the brink of completing a Calendar Grand Slam (winning all four majors in a season), but Daniil Medvedev stopped him in the final.
In the ATP Rankings, the 35-year-old Serbian currently has 4,770 points and is 230 points behind fifth Stefanos Tsitsipas and more than 3,000 points behind the current World No. 1 player, Medvedev.
However, despite likely not playing in Montreal, Djokovic can jump Tsitsipas in the ATP Rankings and paradoxically become the World No. 5 player even without playing in the ATP Masters 1000 tournament.
Last year, the Greek player reached the semi-finals in Toronto. That means, this year in Montreal, he will defend the 360 points that he earned at last year's tournament.
By just entering the tournament and being the third seed, Tsitsipas automatically qualifies for the Round of 32, and therefore, he can count on 45 points that will be added to his total in the ATP Rankings.
However, if he wants to keep his fifth place, he will need to reach at least the quarter-finals this year in Montreal, and that can be a tricky task.
There is one more player that could jump Djokovic in the ATP Rankings, and that is Casper Ruud. However, he will need to reach at least the semi-finals to overtake the Serbian in the ATP Rankings.
