For Tsitsipas they are a motivation, for Keys a joyless diversion, but in an age of live updates they loom large for all players
s Stefanos Tsitsipas debriefed on his second-round loss at the Madrid Open last month, his regret was plain to see. Tsitsipas explained that his goal had been to earn as close to 6,000 ATP ranking points as possible during the clay court season, which he had calculated as the maximum amount he could gain during this period in a perfect world. Now he was behind.
“Injury, draw, there’s a lot of things in tennis which you don’t have control over,” says Jack Draper. “It’s tough to sort of put on and then be very disappointed. If you’re focusing on trying to: ‘Get to this ranking, get to this ranking,’ then you stop developing as a player. You’re not gonna get to that point.”
Although Keys has managed to avoid following her live ranking, the temptation has always been there. “It can become so easy to get wrapped up into it,” she says. “And I think playing from such a young age, it’s hard because that number next to your name can mean so much and it really takes the fun out of tennis. You just start focusing on that so much but it doesn’t really matter.”
Unlike some players, Bergs openly admits that he “constantly” tracks his progress in the live rankings. He believes that chasing such a specific goal is energising: “My team are saying, ‘You should try to put your goals now on another ranking because you’re as good as there.’ I say, ‘No, I just want to enjoy that moment as much as I can when I enter the top hundred.
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