18 Tennis Players to Watch 2024: Your Guide to the Top Athletes

Djokovic will face Australia’s Matthew Ebden to begin the tournament, while Nadal will square off against Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics. The world’s top tennis players are getting ready to run it back at Roland-Garros. The official rankings are updated every Monday, except during the middle of Grand Slam tournaments and Miami + Indian Wells.

‘Players have most to win and most to lose’

Nadal hasn’t set an official date for his retirement—“I’m not in a hurry to make a decision about my future,” he recently told Spanish newspaper Marca—but it’s clear the end is near for the legendary Spaniard, who withdrew from the U.S. For now, he is set to play in the Laver Cup in Berlin in September—the team tournament where, incidentally, Roger Federer bade farewell to competitive tennis in 2022. Nadal already had an Olympic sendoff in which he participated in the cauldron lighting along with retired sports stars Nadia Comaneci, Carl Lewis and Serena Williams, and he has played just six ATP Tour events in the last 19 months. Such a limited schedule would torpedo the pay of most athletes, especially in tennis, where sponsors often reduce their rates for players who fall in the rankings or miss time. Nadal has also become an ambassador for the Saudi Arabian tennis federation, an arrangement that has generated backlash from fans but is widely believed to be paying him seven figures annually.

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This year, the players have found themselves busier than ever, thanks to the inclusion of the Olympic tennis event on the schedule and the fact that matches are running longer and longer. Meanwhile the ATP have extended Masters 1000 tournaments to two weeks and the WTA have bumped up the number of mandatory events from four to 10. 2023 has been an amazing year in tennis, complete with record-setting performances on both the men’s and women’s sides. From Novak Djokovic putting his 24th grand slam title in the record books to Coco Gauff’s US Open finals three-set stunner, fans were treated to moments that will go down in history. Winners of the men’s singles and doubles grand slam tournaments receive 2,000 points with the runner-up receiving 1,300 points.

Iga Swiatek splits with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski after 3 years

• Current world number one ranked player, Sabalenka has been taking women’s tennis by storm with her powerful and aggressive style of play.
• For now, he is set to play in the Laver Cup in Berlin in September—the team tournament where, incidentally, Roger Federer bade farewell to competitive tennis in 2022.
• As Nassar told Telegraph Sport, tennis’s ongoing inertia is a far bigger problem for the players than it is for the various powerbrokers – most of whom are too busy with day-to-day firefighting to look at the sport as a whole.
• For example, a player can be first in the Live Race but lower in the ATP Rankings because he has enjoyed more success in the current season.
• Open tune-up and climbing back to No. 2 in the singles rankings.
• Frances Tiafoe dipped his toe into the ATP top 10 but suffered a major funk at the end of the year.
• She is managing a number of chronic issues and doesn’t play a ton of events, but at worst she should remain a constant bracket-buster candidate in any tournament.

It was cool getting to walk onto Rod Laver Arena and be part of a different sport. It was also interesting to see an athlete like Novak be able to run, to be able to stretch and play basketball. The PTPA has mostly stayed out of the headlines for the past five years, concentrating on building its infrastructure, offering player services and benefits, and raising revenue via trading cards and computer games.

Men’s Tennis ATP Rankings

The best part of the game is probably how fast it is and watching it live, you can appreciate how good they are. You can follow it on television, but when you’re sitting courtside and trying to follow the ball it’s impossible. I had the chance to try and return one of Novak’s serves and that was impossible. Unusually for the incestuous world of tennis, the 44-year-old Nassar has worked at a high level in other sports, including the NFL. His mentor was David Stern – formerly the commissioner of the US’s biggest basketball league – and he brings Stern’s can-do attitude to his present post.

Current ATP Rankings – Men’s Singles

I can be fast running in a straight line, but being agile is pretty hard. The players also complain that the four slams are paying roughly 14 to 16 per cent of their annual income out in prize money, whereas franchise sports in the USA – such as basketball – return around 50 per cent of their income to the players. The 6-foot-11 serve-bot missed most of a year with a hip injury, then hurt his wrist during rehab. After one match in a challenger event in November, he withdrew with a hand injury.

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He rallied, pummeling No. 5 Holger Rune in Shanghai in October, and including challenger events, he won seven of his last nine matches of the year. The oft-mulleted 24-year-old reached the fourth round of the Australian Open and briefly sneaked into the ATP top 40. He went 3-5 against top-20 opponents, too — better than Paul.

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India’s Sumit Nagal, world-ranked 83, will also return to the tournament. Meanwhile, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, who were part of the WTL 2023 title-winning team PBG Eagles, will compete again at the competition, along with 2024 US Open runner-up Taylor Fritz, Hubert Hurkacz and Casper Ruud. Protected rankings cannot be used for seeding purposes or Lucky Loser consideration, nor can they be used for a top eight player to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals. Rankings work on a rolling 52-week period and take into account a player’s best results in 19 tournaments for the ATP and 16 for the WTA.

Coco Gauff rallies past Yuliia Starodubtseva to reach China Open semis

Below are links to the latest ATP and WTA rankings for singles and doubles. The site primarily focuses on the men’s game but also covers the financials of the sports, equipment reviews, strings, and every tournament at Grand Slam, 1000, and 500 level. Since then it’s gone on to be one of the largest independently owned website for tennis news and a platform for fans to share their views on the game.

• His runner-up finish in Melbourne also gave him records for the most sets played at a Grand Slam tournament (31) and the most time spent on court (24 hours 17 minutes).
• “I think we both respect each other a lot, as a player, as a person, but once we are on tour travelling, during tournaments when we are on site, we are with our team on our own, so we don’t speak too much.
• A player can gain protected ranking status when physically injured and does not compete in any tennis event for a minimum of six months.
• A player can use a protected ranking for the first nine tournaments they compete in using the Entry Protection or for up to nine months, beginning with the first tennis event that the player competes in, whichever happens first.
• An avid gamer, Medvedev has partnerships with HyperX gaming headsets and game makers EA Sports and Ubisoft, and he joined the ownership group of esports organization M80 last year.

ATP and WTA Rankings

Veterans like Madison Keys, Danielle Collins and Sloane Stephens battled consistency issues. Speaking during his post-match press conference in China, Alcaraz expanded on his bubbling rivalry with the Italian, telling reporters the two “aren’t close friends.” “It keeps happening every single time they play. They come up with suspense, they come up with entertainment.” “They are following in the footsteps of the ‘Big Three’ in terms of level,” Wilander told EuroSport. Novak Djokovic holds the record for most year end number 1s with a total of eight to his name (2023, 2021, 2020, 2018, 2015, 2014, 2012, and 2011), followed by Pete Sampras with six, and Roger Federer, Jimmy Connors, and Rafael Nadal with five. Since then a total of 28 different men have achieved the number 1 status, with the current number 1 being Novak Djokovic of Serbia.

Navarro won just one Slam match, but she finished the year on the brink of the top 30 thanks to steadily awesome performances at minor events. She reached seven ITF finals (with five titles) and won 64 of a grueling 88 matches. She also beat two top-15 players, Maria Sakkari and Keys, in September. Her serve needs work, but Pegula might be the only American with a better return game.

Both players and their teams boarded the same private plane from Beijing to Shanghai, to prepare for the Masters 1000 event. Alcaraz improved to 6-4 in his career against Sinner after their 10th meeting in what has become tennis’ top rivalry following the 60 matches between Nadal and Djokovic. Novak Djokovic is the most decorated men’s tennis player in history when it comes to Grand Slams, but he will be chasing a career first in Paris. Draws for the five tennis events at the 2024 Olympics were announced on Thursday, July 25, the day before the Opening Ceremony.

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That might firmly establish that he’s got a lower overall ceiling, but he’s got a higher floor, too. The former Texas Longhorns player cracked the top 200 in January, the top 100 in April and the top 50 in September. She beat past French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko at Roland Garros and took Wimbledon champ Marketa Vondrousova to three sets at the US Open. Her serve might limit her ceiling, but her return game and groundstrokes are excellent. In all, tennis’ 10 highest-paid players earned an estimated $246 million over the past 12 months. That is well off the record of $343 million from 2020—when the now-retired Federer and Serena Williams accounted for $142 million between them—but the total represents a 26% increase from 2023’s $196 million.

Shortly before that, both Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz and British No 1 Jack Draper had separately attacked the sport’s packed schedule, with Alcaraz saying “it’s going to kill us in some way”, and Draper calling the status quo “mental”. “It’s a weird thing, but I think tennis is different than other sports because of it,” Alcaraz said of their shared commute. “Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner put on such a great, entertaining show. To me, it’s up there with the absolute best sporting events ever. The 37-year-old Serbian superstar’s next great rival, 21-year-old Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, has jumped to No. 1 this year with an estimated $42.3 million before taxes and agent’s fees over the last 12 months, dating to the 2023 U.S.

Do players such as Pegula, Fritz and Tiafoe still have another level to add to their respective games? Sinner’s rollercoaster year took a dip this month when it was revealed he tested positive for a banned steroid in March and had to forfeit the prize money and ranking points he had earned at the Indian Wells tournament. But the International Tennis Integrity Agency found that the low levels in his system were the result of contamination, and Sinner was not forced to miss any time on tour. While he did sit out the Paris Olympics because of tonsillitis and has been hampered by a hip injury, his season has taken him to new heights as well. Off the court, he picked up endorsements with skincare line La Roche-Posay and De Cecco pasta, alongside existing sponsors like Gucci, Lavazza coffee and Rolex.

ATP Points 2024

• Medvedev has a single Grand Slam win—in Flushing Meadows in 2021—but he has reached five other major finals, including the 2019 and 2023 U.S.
• I can be fast running in a straight line, but being agile is pretty hard.
• He spent much of the year battling a nagging knee injury; after ranking in the mid-40s for most of the spring, he found himself in the 150s in October.
• With 24 Grand Slam titles to his name, Djokovic has achieved unmatched success.
• He created history at Tokyo 2020, becoming the first Australian in 53 years to qualify for an Olympic men’s 800-metre final.
• Navarro won just one Slam match, but she finished the year on the brink of the top 30 thanks to steadily awesome performances at minor events.
• ESPN surveyed league executives, coaches and scouts to help us rank the top 10 players at 11 different positions, from quarterback to cornerback and all positions in between.

These rankings are used for seedings and determining which tournament a player can enter directly. After a bright 2022, Nakashima suffered a lost year of sorts. He spent much of the year battling a nagging knee injury; after ranking in the mid-40s for most of the spring, he found himself in the 150s in October.

Jannik Sinner confident in avoiding doping ban after WADA appeal

Ruud claimed his 12th career ATP Tour title in May in Geneva. Eleven have come on clay, but when he is healthy—a parasite hindered him in the spring, and an illness knocked him out of this month’s tournament in Montreal—Ruud can compete on any surface. He is the only man 25 or younger with at least 100 career victories on both hardcourts and clay. Off the court, Ruud has added deals with Fleming watches, Swedish https://zanzibet.org/ bank Handelsbanken and Renault, on top of a half-dozen existing sponsors. The 22-year-old from San Candido, Italy started the year ranked 15th in the world before jumping to fourth as of the end of October. Sinner defeated world number one Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals at the 2023 Miami Open, and has attributed his recent success to his improved mental, physical conditioning, and change in coaching staff.

Open—and her follow-up with a doubles title at this year’s French Open—gave marketers one more reason to chase the young American star, who has pursued a steady strategy off the court but has still found herself among the sport’s best paid. At the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony in July, she served as Team USA’s flag-bearer, alongside LeBron James, and she will be appearing on a limited-edition box of Wheaties. The “open” in the US Open means the tournament is open for anyone to compete.

When 52 weeks have passed since the points were acquired, they are dropped, and new points are added. If you match your performance from 52 weeks ago, you have a net gain/loss of zero points. You’ll gain points if you better your performance, but if you perform worse, you’ll lose points.

16 spots of the 128-person field are reserved for professionals or amateurs who win three matches in the qualifying tournament. No qualifier entry has ever gone on to win the US Open until 2021 when 18-year-old Emma Raducanu did just that, claiming the Grand Slam title in dominating fashion without dropping a set the entire tournament. Since then, Radacanu has fallen out of the top 200, but she’s planning her return next year. Ben Shelton is a rising star who brings power, agility, and fearlessness to the game. Shelton’s elite serve speeds—which have hit as high as 149 mph during tournament play—draw gasps from the audience and racket claps from opponents.

ESPN surveyed league executives, coaches and scouts to help us rank the top 10 players at 11 different positions, from quarterback to cornerback and all positions in between. This was the fifth edition of these rankings, and as usual, several players moved up or fell off last year’s lists. I’ll have a hit every now and then, but I still need to improve a lot. I’m fast around the court, but I don’t have the agility that the top tennis players have.

Current world number one ranked player, Sabalenka has been taking women’s tennis by storm with her powerful and aggressive style of play. The 25-year-old Belarusian is a hard worker with an even harder groundstroke. Sabalenka made it to at least the semi-finals in all four of the Grand Slam appearances in 2023, and is a name you’ll be sure to see at the top of leaderboards time and time again.

She played nine matches against top-20 opponents in 2023 and either beat them or took them to three sets five times. But she also lost 10 matches to players outside of the top 50. The 2017 US Open champion remains a threat in any match, but she still struggles to string good performances together. Collins was beset by unlucky draws in 2023, finishing seven of her 18 tournaments against Swiatek, Pegula or Rybakina.