Novak Djokovic, the current men's singles world No. 1, and the record holder of most weeks spent at the top of the rankings.

The ATP Rankings are the Association of Tennis Professionals' (ATP) merit-based method for determining the rankings in men's tennis. The top-ranked player is the player who, over the previous 52 weeks, has garnered the most ranking points on the ATP Tour. Points are awarded based on how far a player advances in tournaments and the category of those tournaments. The ATP has used a computerized system for determining the rankings since August 23, 1973.^[1] Starting in 1979, an updated rankings list is released at the beginning of each week. Since 1973, 26 men have been ranked No. 1 by the ATP,^[2][3] of which 17 have been year-end No. 1. The current world number one is Novak Djokovic from Serbia.

Ranking method

Since the introduction of the rankings, the method used to calculate a player's ranking points has changed several times. As of 2019, the rankings are calculated by totaling the points a player wins in his best eighteen tournaments, subject to certain restrictions. For top players the counting tournaments are the four Grand Slam tournaments, the eight mandatory ATP Masters tournaments, the player's best four eligible ATP Tour 500 tournaments (the non-mandatory ATP Masters 1000 event in Monte Carlo may be substituted for one of these), and his best two results from ATP Tour 250 tournaments. Lower-ranked players who are not eligible for some or all of the top tournaments may include additional ATP 500 and ATP 250 events, and also ATP Challenger Tour, and ITF Men's Circuit tournaments. Players who qualify for the year-end ATP Finals also include any points gained from the tournament in his total, increasing the number of tournaments counted to 19.^[4]

ATP records and particularities

Novak Djokovic has spent the most weeks as world No. 1, a total of 324 weeks. Roger Federer has the record of 237 consecutive weeks at No. 1.^[5] Novak Djokovic and Pete Sampras hold the record for the most year-end No. 1 rankings, both men achieving the feat six times.^[6][7] Sampras' record was achieved in consecutive years. Patrick Rafter spent the least time at No. 1 (one week).

Novak Djokovic has the record of most ATP rankings points (16,950). Federer in 2004/2006, Nadal in 2010 and Djokovic in 2015 clinched Year-end No. 1 the earliest in the season (September).

Lleyton Hewitt is both the youngest world No. 1 (20 years, 8 months) and youngest year-end No. 1,^[8][9] while Federer is the oldest No. 1 (36 years, 10 months).^[10][11] Djokovic is the oldest year-end No. 1 (33 years, 7 months).^[12]

Federer is the player with the longest time span between first and most recent dates at world No. 1 in the history of the ATP. He most recently held the top ranking the week of June 18, 2018, more than fourteen years after first becoming No. 1 on February 2, 2004.^[13]

Rafael Nadal has the longest timespan, 11 years, between his first and last year-end No. 1 titles, 2008 and 2019. He is also the only player to be world No. 1 in three decades.

Two players, Ivan Lendl and Marcelo Ríos, have reached No. 1 without previously having won a Grand Slam tournament.^[14] Lendl reached No. 1 on February 21, 1983, but did not win his first Grand Slam title until the 1984 French Open.^[15] Ríos reached No. 1 on March 30, 1998, but retired without ever having won a Grand Slam singles title, making him the only No. 1 player with that distinction.^[16][17]

Since 1973 when the ATP rankings started, there have been twelve years in which one player held the top spot for the entire year: Jimmy Connors in 1975, 1976, and 1978; Lendl in 1986 and 1987; Pete Sampras in 1994 and 1997; Hewitt in 2002; Federer in 2005, 2006, and 2007; and Djokovic in 2015. In contrast to this, 1999 saw five players hold the No. 1 ranking (the most in any single year): Sampras, Carlos Moyá, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Andre Agassi, and Rafter.

John McEnroe held the No. 1 ranking on a record 14 occasions, and Sampras is the only other player to have held it on 10 or more occasions with 11 stints.

World No. 1 ranked players

The statistics are updated only when the ATP website revises its rankings (usually on Monday mornings except when tournament finals are postponed). Weeks' stats will be automatically updated every Monday (UTC).

Roger Federer spent a record 237 consecutive weeks at world No. 1. in the 2000s.

Ivan Lendl spent the most weeks at the top of the ATP rankings in the 1980s.

Jimmy Connors spent the most weeks at world No. 1 in the 1970s.

Ilie N?stase became the first ATP world No. 1 ranked player on August 23, 1973.

Weeks at No. 1

The ATP Tour was suspended from March 16 to August 21, 2020. The ATP Rankings were frozen from March 23 to August 23, 2020; thus that period was not counted towards the total. In that period (22 weeks), the world number one was Novak Djokovic.

Weeks at No. 1 leaders

No. 1 leaders timeline

No. 1 leaders' weeks milestones by age

Year-end No. 1

Pete Sampras finished a record six years as world No. 1 (tied with Djokovic).

John McEnroe finished as the year-end No. 1 for four consecutive years in the 1980s.

Lleyton Hewitt was the youngest male player to hold the world No. 1 ranking, at age 20 in November 2001.

The ATP year-end No. 1 (ATP Player of the Year), in recent decades, has been determined as the player who ends the year as world No. 1 in the ATP Rankings. Prior to the early 1990s this was not always the case, in some instances the "ATP Player of the Year" and the Year-end No. 1 in the rankings were different players. Novak Djokovic and Pete Sampras hold the ATP record of six year-end No. 1 rankings. Six players have stayed at ATP No. 1 in the rankings every week of a calendar year. Roger Federer is the only player to have been ranked No. 1 every week for three consecutive calendar years. Four players (Ivan Lendl, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal) have achieved year-end No. 1 rankings in non-consecutive years.

Players who became No. 1 without having won a Major title

Player	First ranked No. 1	First Grand Slam final	First Grand Slam title	Ref.
Ivan Lendl	February 28, 1983	1981 French Open (1st of 19)	1984 French Open (1st of 8)	[57]
Marcelo Ríos	March 30, 1998	1998 Australian Open (only final)	None (retired in 2004)	[14]

Time span between first and last dates No. 1 was held

Time span	Player	First held No. 1		Last held No. 1
		Date	Age	Date	Age
14 years, 142 days	Roger Federer	Feb 2, 2004	22 years, 5 months	Jun 24, 2018	36 years, 10 months
11 years, 168 days	Rafael Nadal	Aug 18, 2008	22 years, 2 months	Feb 2, 2020	33 years, 7 months
9 years, 343 days	Novak Djokovic?	Jul 4, 2011	24 years, 1 month	June 12, 2021	34 years
8 years, 339 days	Jimmy Connors	Jul 29, 1974	21 years, 10 months	Jul 3, 1983	30 years, 10 months
8 years, 150 days	Andre Agassi	Apr 10, 1995	24 years, 11 months	Sep 7, 2003	33 years, 3 months
7 years, 221 days	Pete Sampras	Apr 12, 1993	21 years, 8 months	Nov 19, 2000	29 years, 3 months
7 years, 165 days	Ivan Lendl	Feb 28, 1983	22 years, 11 months	Aug 12, 1990	30 years, 5 months
5 years, 189 days	John McEnroe	Mar 3, 1980	21 years	Sep 8, 1985	26 years, 6 months
3 years, 344 days	Björn Borg	Aug 23, 1977	21 years, 2 months	Aug 2, 1981	25 years, 1 month
2 years, 52 days	Stefan Edberg	Aug 13, 1990	24 years, 6 months	Oct 4, 1992	26 years, 8 months
1 year, 214 days	Jim Courier	Feb 10, 1992	21 years, 5 months	Sep 12, 1993	22 years, 11 months
1 year, 208 days	Lleyton Hewitt	Nov 19, 2001	20 years, 8 months	Jun 15, 2003	22 years, 3 months
349 days	Gustavo Kuerten	Dec 4, 2000	24 years, 2 months	Nov 18, 2001	25 years, 2 months
286 days	Andy Murray	Nov 7, 2016	29 years, 5 months	Aug 20, 2017	30 years, 3 months
283 days	Ilie N?stase	Aug 23, 1973	27 years, 1 month	Jun 2, 1974	27 years, 10 months
223 days	Boris Becker	Jan 28, 1991	23 years, 2 months	Sep 8, 1991	23 years, 9 months
153 days	Marat Safin	Nov 20, 2000	20 years, 9 months	Apr 22, 2001	21 years, 2 months
146 days	Marcelo Ríos	Mar 30, 1998	22 years, 3 months	Aug 23, 1998	22 years, 7 months
139 days	Mats Wilander	Sep 12, 1988	24 years	Jan 29, 1989	24 years, 5 months
90 days	Andy Roddick	Nov 3, 2003	21 years, 2 months	Feb 1, 2004	21 years, 5 months
62 days	Thomas Muster	Feb 12, 1996	28 years, 4 months	Apr 14, 1996	28 years, 6 months
55 days	John Newcombe	Jun 3, 1974	30 years	Jul 28, 1974	30 years, 2 months
55 days	Juan Carlos Ferrero	Sep 8, 2003	23 years, 5 months	Nov 2, 2003	23 years, 8 months
41 days	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	May 3, 1999	25 years, 2 months	Jun 13, 1999	25 years, 3 months
13 days	Carlos Moyá	Mar 15, 1999	22 years, 6 months	Mar 28, 1999	22 years, 7 months
6 days	Patrick Rafter	Jul 26, 1999	26 years, 6 months	Aug 1, 1999	26 years, 7 months

Weeks at No. 1 by decade

^ Note: Rafael Nadal is the only player to hold the ATP No. 1 ranking in three decades (2000s, 2010s and 2020s).

No. 1 players by country

Rank	Country	Total		Players
		Players	Weeks
1	United States	6	896	Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick
2	Serbia	1	324	Novak Djokovic?
3	Switzerland	1	310	Roger Federer
4	Czechoslovakia	1	270	Ivan Lendl
5	Spain	3	219	Carlos Moyá, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Rafael Nadal
6	Sweden	3	201	Björn Borg, Mats Wilander, Stefan Edberg
7	Australia	3	89	John Newcombe, Patrick Rafter, Lleyton Hewitt
8	Brazil	1	43	Gustavo Kuerten
9		1	41	Andy Murray
10	Romania	1	40	Ilie N?stase
11	Russia	2	15	Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Marat Safin
12	Germany	1	12	Boris Becker
13	Austria	1	6	Thomas Muster
	Chile	1		Marcelo Ríos

See also

• World number 1 male tennis player rankings (includes rankings before 1973)
• ATP Rankings
• ATP players with highest rank of 2 to 10
• ATP Rankings achievements - men's singles
• ITF World Champions
• List of ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players
• List of WTA number 1 ranked tennis players

References

General

Specific

External links

• ATP Tour website