I was looking at his points total this morning and initially wondered where 75 points had gone !

Yes, his 18th result now due to come off this week will be 120 points since the 75 has already "gone".  So, that'll be 195 points to get back to where he was, Canada semi-final will cover that !!  I suppose it is an incentive to do well in compulsories if you start doing away with counting optionals !

Yes, the 0 pointer is just meant to apply for a second late withdrawal within a year ( or within same calendar year, I'm not sure ? ) , and I'm not aware that he already had one hit.  I do know this penaly, which is pretty rarely invoked, has sometimes been repealed.

However, if he has genuinely fallen foul of this rule, and presumably the rules are pretty specific, then it is really ridiculous planning on the part of Andy's team.

Some folk were bemoaning him not going to Indianapolis to gain possible points ( although I thought it fair enough to take the week off ), but if he's actually lost points due to unprofessional rank carelessness then that is bad.

I was presuminhg he wanted as high a ranking as possible, and inparticular wanted to get to the Masters Cup at the end of the season.  It doesn't help if he's going to restrict himself to 17 counters including just 4 "best others".

If he misses out on the Masters Cup, he also misses out on potential extra big ranking poiints, which would stay with him for all of 2009, again possibly effecting his seedings.

I guess what I am saying is, if this is right, someone needs shot !
  

-- Edited by indiana at 10:55, 2008-07-21

seagull wrote:

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Thats crazy - so he loses 120 points this week?

He gave plenty of notice so can't understand this

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He did give a few days notice, but he also effectively said he wasn't going because he couldn't be bothered. I doubt he'd have much hope of winning an appeal unless we're right about this not being a second offence.

I think that you should lose points if you skip even one tournament for no reason at all (goes for Nadal at Stuttgart, too). There are fans who plan trips for months - flights, hotels and what not - for these guys and in the end they find out that they were never supposed to play there in the first place.

I think that there should be a rule for top 50 players that to withdraw, you need to be certified by an ATP specialist.

Usually you get your points reinstated if you do some publicity work for the tour as a penance: expect to see Andy looking embarrassed in a few pics from Toronto on the ATP website.

I am puzzled. Why would Andy lose another 120 pts at the end of this week. He played Canada last year and as its a Masters any points this year will replace those he got last year. This is in his 18 as all Masters are. His 120 doesn't come up for defence until later this year.
Stupid mistake about Indianapolis though.

Wow, I wasn't expecting that. I did ask on the Indianapolis thread what the exact ruling was, as I knew it existed, but like other people on here I cannot remember another late withdrawal in the last year.