In perhaps the most peculiar of circumstances, Novak Djokovic is set to become the top seed at Wimbledon despite being ranked world no. 3.
Djokovic will lose the World No. 1 ranking when the ATP updates the standings on Monday, June 13th. The Serb failed to defend his Roland Garros trophy from last year after losing a titanic quarterfinal to eventual champion Rafael Nadal.
However, because last year's tournament ended on June 13th, the points will officially drop on that date this year. Therefore, Djokovic will slide to number three, with both Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev moving ahead of him.
Medvedev reached the round of 16 at the French Open, which is a great achievement in itself. He missed a huge chunk of the clay-court swing because of a hernia operation and only played the Geneva ATP 250 before going to Paris. He will regain the number one ranking.
Zverev, meanwhile, will rise to a career-high ranking of No. 2 after a semifinal at Roland Garros. The German was forced to retire from his match against Nadal after injuring his ankle following a bad slip on the court.
However, neither of those two players will be at Wimbledon, as Russian players are banned from competing there this year, and Zverev is not expected to be near the tennis courts until at the earliest on the hard courts of North America because of injury.
That means Djokovic will be the top seed by default and will be the highest-ranked player in the field in SW19. The 35-year-old is facing a further ranking slide after Wimbledon, as he will lose the full 2000 points from winning the tournament last year.
The ATP has stripped points from Wimbledon because of the ban it has imposed on Russian and Belarusian players amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. It's a bizarre situation as far as the rankings go.
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