So, End-of-Year 2021 ATP official rankings give us 13 in our men's top 500 (with the caveat that James Ward has announced his retirement).
There are three age 21 and under. Three are age 30+ Three are ex-UC college players. Three (at least) weren't born in the UK Three are Scottish (This is dodgy but it has to fit my 'threes' so I'm counting Isle of Mann as a half-counter - what on earth is the Isle of Mann, anyway??? - and a half-counter for Cam - all a bit debatable, that one)
Dec. 27th 2021 - Top 500
12 Cameron Norrie (CH) 25 Dan Evans
121 Kyle Edmund 128 Liam Broady 134 Andy Murray
215 Jay Clarke 265 Jack Draper (age 20) 268 Ryan Peniston
340 Aidan McHugh (age 21) 347 Paul Jubb 392 James Ward 436 (+16) Billy Harris (CH) 464 Anton Matusevich (age 20)
And for the women:
There are 15 in total in the top 500.
Three age 21 and under. Two players over 30. Only one from US college (I think)
19 - Emma Raducanu (age 19) 72 - Heather Watson
123 - Harriet Dart 149 - Katie Boulter 151 - Fran Jones (age 21)
But I also read that in 1266, the Perth Treaty between Norway and Scotland officially recognised the Isle of Man under Scottish sovereignty.
And then it went back and forth between England and Scotland for ages.
And it's equidistant, so I think 'half Scottish' is about right.
However, if he's bumped off by popular opinion, then Cam will just have to step up to full Scottish-ness
And, yes, I like the Island Games - I always follow it - Scott Parker, of course, used to do well. And Billy Harris won it in 2015. And Stuart Parker won the next two, I think. Mandy Carreras also won it once, I seem to remember (for Gibraltar).
(Stuart Parker, of course, spent nearly all his tennis teenage years in France, but that's normal for small islands, hardly tennis coaching hot spots).
Joe is the clear leader in terms of net points accurred. His 3830 is the most of any player, male or female, singles or doubles for the year. However, Dan also achieved more than a 1000+ point gain for the year.
In rankings gained, Henry takes first place. And he is the only player who jumps more than 1000 places this year.
So the closest of the 4 categories, with Tara coming out front for the year in terms of net points gained, but with by far and away the lowest "winning total", reflecting the relative success of women's doubles this year vs the other groups.
In terms of ranking gains, Ali was also the clear winner, albeit again her total was the lowest across the 4 group winners
So although the ATP and WTA have published rankings for week 1, I thought it would be more interesting to do one final look back over 2021.
Below is a break down of the how the Top 10 Men accrued their ranking points for 2021. Because both tours suspended their normal rolling 52 week system, it has meant some 2019 and 2020 tournaments have continued to count towards the ranking of some players.
Hopefully most of the graphs are self explanatory.
The two players who climbed into the Top 10 by year end (Aidan and Paul) was at the expense of James and Jan who began the year as GB#7 and GB#9 respectively.
The size of the blue dots is relative to the amount of points won in that location.
The '7596' value is the combined points of the 10 players at year end.
For a breakdown per-player head to their individual player threads, where you will find out
- Who's the only player who does not have a tournament win contributing to their total
- Who is GB's clay king (48% of their points were won on clay) and who is seemingly allergic to the dirt (less than 1%)
- Who's got most of their eggs in one basket (1 tournament accounts for more than 40% of their points)
- Who's the globetrotter amongst the group (14 countries visited) and who's not a fan of travelling (points come from just 4 countries)
- Who needs to get off to a flyer in 2022 (a third of their points will drop by the end of Q1 2022)
- Who got themselves into the winning habit (almost 60% of the points come from tournament wins)
So unlike the ATP, the WTA website doesn't readily give a breakdown of a player's points, so i have cribbed this info from other sites.
Compared to the men, there was more churn in the Women's the Top 10 places thanks to Jo's retirement announcement. Along with Jo (GB#1), Katy Dunne (GB#9) and Amanda Carreras (GB#10) are the other players who dropped out of the Top 10 by the end of the year. They were replaced by Emma, Katie B and Beth.
The Women's points came from more continents (6 vs 5) but less countries (38 vs 25) than the men's. GS and ITF tournaments also contributed a far greater percentage of the Women's overall total points. But one similarity was the percentage of points that were accrued in 2021. For the Top 10 women it was 75.8% of their total of 6382 points while for men it was 76.8% of their 7596 points total.
So in the 2nd week of 2022, here's the Men's WRs for w/c 10th Jan.
In singles, Jay's is 'fastest' off the mark for points gain, but there is not much to see in terms of ranking gains. Total number of Men in the Top500 remains at 13. Unsurprising the number of GB players all other "Top X" groups also remained unchained.
In doubles, Neal has an actual proper quick start, with a commanding lead in points gained. Again, actual WR gains are minimal. Total number in Top 500 remains at 18. No other changes in any other Top X groups either.
So not much to report in singles, Jodie and Katie take a very slight lead in net points gained so far in the month, while Tara takes an even smaller lead in gains in WR. Not surprisingly there is no change in the number of GB women in the Top500, however Tara's small move increases the number in the Top400 to 11.
In doubles, there is a bit more action. Heather and Tara both register notable net point gains, with Heather managing to put a little more distance between her and Tara in the fight for GB#1. No change in the number of players in the Top500.
For the 'Bob-followers', the men's top 500 risks being very interesting in the next month.
We currently have Stuart (509) and Ali G (522) right on the cusp.
Stuart has only got 1 point from the event in Bath. But Ali is going well and should beat Ryan S.
A 100 points back is Jan C (599) and Felix (600) - in Bath, Felix is into the QF already, Jan playing his R2 match today.
And Mark Whitehouse is 663 and into the QFs
Another 100 points back is Ryan S (694) and Charlie Broom (693) - with CHarlie into the QFs too
And then there's the group at the far end of the top-1000 but could easily clock up good points this month - Dan Cox, Giles Hussey, Dan Little, Henry Patten...
As well as Arthur Fery and Jack PJ if they're here and playing....
For the 'Bob-followers', the men's top 500 risks being very interesting in the next month.
We currently have Stuart (509) and Ali G (522) right on the cusp.
Stuart has only got 1 point from the event in Bath. But Ali is going well and should beat Ryan S.
A 100 points back is Jan C (599) and Felix (600) - in Bath, Felix is into the QF already, Jan playing his R2 match today.
And Mark Whitehouse is 663 and into the QFs
Another 100 points back is Ryan S (694) and Charlie Broom (693) - with CHarlie into the QFs too
And then there's the group at the far end of the top-1000 but could easily clock up good points this month - Dan Cox, Giles Hussey, Dan Little, Henry Patten...
As well as Arthur Fery and Jack PJ if they're here and playing....
I still live in hope of 20 in the top 500 status for GB tennis.