| Kafelnikov's Strange Rise to #1 | |
Dateline: 05/08/99
Yevgeny Kafelnikov became on Monday the first Russian ever to reach the world's number one tennis ranking. Despite a congratulatory telegram from Russian president Boris Yeltsin, Kafelnikov's satisfaction must be somewhat dampened by having reached his long-held goal during a major slump. He has, in fact, lost his last seven matches.
Kafelnikov displaced Pete Sampras as number one not by capturing ranking points to rise above Sampras, but by standing in place while the injured Sampras dropped below him. Sampras declined to defend his title in Atlanta last week, thus losing the 172 points that title was worth and dropping below Kafelnikov by 15 points. The strength of Kafelnikov's play very early in the year, including his Australian Open title, gave him the ranking points that have sustained him thus far, and he won't have to defend those points until early in 2000.
Kafelnikov's odd ascent highlights some of the problems with the current ranking system that have prompted the ATP Tour to change the system as of 2000. The most important result of the new system will be to reduce the pressure to play more tournaments than the players' bodies can endure. Players will be able to concentrate on gaining points from the four Grand Slams and the nine Super Nine events, and then count only the best five results from other events. This will help to prevent situations like the current one where top players like Sampras and Patrick Rafter have to miss important tournaments in order to recover from injuries caused, in part at least, by overuse.
Although Kafelnikov may have benefited from the current ranking system, he too will probably welcome the change to the less stressful new system in 2000. Withdrawing from the German Open this week with back injuries, Kafelnikov might lose his new number one ranking all too soon. The most immediate threat, from Carlos Moya, who held the number one spot briefly a few weeks ago, was stalled as Moya lost to Marcelo Rios today.
