Certain Wimbledon stars are up in arms upon learning the exact impact they'll face as a result of the tournament being stripped of its rankings points.
Players knew well in advance of this year's Grand Slam at SW19 that they would not receive rankings points regardless of their performance in London. The ATP and WTA announced the change after the All England Club banned Russian and Belarusian players in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
It means world No. 40 Nick Kyrgios will miss out on the 1,200 points he'd usually receive for reaching a major final (or 2,000 points for winning the match). British ace Cameron Norrie also stands to suffer despite losing out to finalist Novak Djokovic in the semis, a feat that would usually reward him with 720 rankings points.
"It would be nice to have that and nice to have that blanket of being back well inside the top 10, reaching a new career high, ticking the box, doing that," said Norrie. The British No. 1 was more concerned with the plights of those lower down the rankings, saying the omission of points at SW19 "changes absolutely nothing" for him.
"I'm still going to be seeded highly and still going to be in every tournament," added the South Africa-born star. "What's really tough is the players just outside the top 100 and guys like Liam Broady who made the third round, and Alastair Gray, who would now be in Slam qualies [qualification]."
World No. 132 Broady advanced to the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career but fell out to Australia's Alex de Minaur. The points ban also relates to those won at Wimbledon 2021, and Broady said in June that without those, he'll "probably drop back now to 150 [in the world]."
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Even with a victory over Kyrgios in Sunday's final, Djokovic knows he'll drop from third to seventh in the world rankings come Monday. Responding to a tweet explaining that scenario, Broady posted several crying-with-laughter emojis while asking: "I am failing to see how this is punishing Wimbledon?"
Norrie's humble response to the setback is admirable considering a run to the semi-finals would normally move him up to eighth in the world. That would eclipse the career-best ranking of 10th he reached in April earlier this year after he finished as a runner-up at the Miami Open.
Given Kyrgios' much lower position in the pecking order, he again faces the prospect of entering another major unseeded when the U.S. Open kicks off next month. Other competitions have indicated they won't follow Wimbledon's lead by banning Russian and Belarusian players, however, suggesting such concerns could (at least temporarily) become a thing of the past.
