The 2011 rulebook is now on the WTA website, and one of the changes concerns the rankings and the number of tournaments needed.
"Players must earn (i) ranking points in at least three (3) valid Tournaments, or (ii) a minimum of 10 singles ranking points or 10 doubles ranking points in one (1) or more valid Tournaments, in order to appear on the WTA Rankings."
Sensible for once. Laura R would have been ranked earlier under this rule, having >20 points from one tournament. It will help talented juniors get a ranking that allows them to avoid the need to get Q wildcards, and will also help people back from injury more quickly.
And of course Justine Henin-Hardenne when she next returns from retirement.
Surely none of this will be backdated, it's unlikely that Elena "will" jump up the doubles ratings, have they not said that it applies to all points gained in 2011 onwards, or are they really going to apply the rule to points gained last year?
I can see no particular reason why the WTA should not backdate this welcome move.
And indeed, as has been said, it must surely be much easier to deal with if they do backdate it.
Say we have player a) who earns 6 pomts in one tournament in November 2010 and player b) who earns 6 points in one tournament in February 2011.
If they then both win a further 6 points in a tournament in May 2011, clearly player b) will now be ranked but it would be more difficult to have programmed so that player a) would not be ranked. It is possible though maybe by the wording of the rule amendment they would be ranked anyway.
Now if in that scenario, you think anyway it makes sense for the cumulative 10 points in 2 tournaments to include 2010 tournaments, then if that has already been won in one or two tournaments in 2010 then I think these players also should be ranked from the start of 2011.
-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 21st of December 2010 11:23:27 AM
Indiana, the way i read it neither of those players would be ranked. I think they would need 10 points from 1 single tounament, rather than 10 cumulatively?
In this week's rankings the WTA have indeed added in these who had already accumulated 10 or more points from one or two tournaments, but had not met the previous single requirement for a ranking of scoring in 3 or more tournaments.
Having read a few other forums (GBTG being one of them), there still seems to be some confusion over the 10 point rule. However, Yuka Mori is now ranked having accumulated 9 points from one tournament and 4 from another.
