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“Terrible for Novak Djokovic” – Andy Roddick Gives His Take on Rankings Freeze

Published 04/16/2020, 4:56 AM EDT

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The ATP Tour found itself in an unprecedented situation when the COVID-19 outbreak took a grip on the planet. Having been forced to suspend the Tour, the officials had another difficult decision on the ATP Rankings. Ultimately, they decided to freeze the Rankings. Andy Roddick conforms with the decision despite sympathizing with Novak Djokovic.

When ATP officials declared that the Rankings would be frozen until the Tour resumed, there was one question on everyone’s mind- will the weeks be counted towards Novak’s stay at the World No. 1 spot?

The answer was obviously no they would not. Freezing the rankings meant exactly that, freezing the points and all other aspects of the system. Understandably, the news disappointed Novak fans.

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The Serb going to miss out on capitalizing on his superb form this season, which was a shame. He looked on course to rampage through the season and would have been a favorite in most events he played. Moreover, all he had to do was stay on top of the rankings until October to equal Roger Federer’s record number of weeks at the summit of the ATP Rankings.

Former player and current analyst, Brad Gilbert had expressed his disappointment when the news broke that the weeks would not count. He was firm in his belief that Djokovic deserved to have those weeks counted towards his tally.

Roddick sympathizes with Novak Djokovic

Former World No. 1, Andy Roddick, begs to differ. While he understood Brad’s perspective to a degree, there was a fundamental problem with it according to Andy.

“You have to play the matches to win and you can’t get credit for matches you don’t play; for matches that other people don’t play. There’s every chance that Novak could get hurt and Rafa could win a Masters Series event, and then on clay, he could run the table.” 

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Andy also stressed that it wouldn’t be right especially since it is about an all-time record, but he also sympathized with the Serb.

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“It’s terrible for Novak, but you can’t just make assumptions and therefore give credit for something that hasn’t been played out.”

It is unfair on Novak Djokovic to have to wait until next year to get that record and even more so that he cannot add to his Grand Slam tally, but it is the reality of the situation. As frustrating as it surely is, Novak knows what is more important in life right now.

As a Djokovic fan, I am quite disappointed, but I also agree with Roddick.

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Having said that, I also know he is going to break both those records at some point in the future. If not this year, next year it is.

And that is the only way it would be fair for all. Novak Djokovic wouldn’t want it any other way.

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Written by:

Samir Satam

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