SRI Rankings Top 50

Ranking Software has been ranking ATP men's tennis since March 1995, posting the Top 50 to rec.sport.tennis each week. In 1996 a (now thriving) mailing list was initiated for those who didn't want to trawl through the newsgroups, and in January 1997 I started the SRI Rankings Top 50 Women, based on WTA results. Unfortunately, the fan sites which had been providing WTA results shut down in January 1998, and the SRI Rankings Top 50 Women had been discontinued. It returned to life in time for Wimbledon.

FAQ

1. What's the method behind SRI?
2. What does SRI stand for?
3. How are the rankings different from the ATP / WTA's?
4. Why is <insert player's name> ranked so high / so low?
5. Where is <insert player's name> ranked?
6. Please put me on the mailing list(s)
7. Where do I get the data?

Issues available

Due to disk space, time, and relevance constraints, you'll only find a selection of issues here. Back-issues can be obtained by writing to me.

Latest SRI Rankings Top 50 Men: #M132, 17th October 2000

Latest SRI Rankings Top 50 Women: #W107, 17th October 2000

2000

#M131, 10th October 2000 #M130, 3rd October 2000 #M129, 21st September 2000 #M128, 13th September 2000 #M127 (U.S. Open Special), 28th August 2000 #M126, 22nd August 2000 #M125, 15th August 2000 #M124, 8th August 2000 #M123, 1st August 2000 #M122, 25th July 2000 #M121, 18th July 2000 #M120, 11th July 2000 #M119 (Wimbledon Special), 30th June 2000 #M118, 20th June 2000 #M117, 14th June 2000 #M116 (French Open Special), 28th May 2000 #M115, 4th February 2000 #M114 (Australian Open Special), 16th January 2000

#W106, 10th October 2000 #W105, 3rd October 2000 #W104, 13th September 2000 #W103 (U.S. Open Special), 28th August 2000 #W102, 22nd August 2000 #W101, 15th August 2000 #W100, 8th August 2000 #W99, 1st August 2000 #W98, 25th July 2000 #W97, 18th July 2000 #W96, 11th July 2000 #W95 (Wimbledon Special), 30th June 2000 #W94, 14th June 2000 #W93 (French Open Special), 28th May 2000 #W92 (Australian Open Special), 16th January 2000

1999

#M113 (Year-End Special), 20th December 1999 #M112 (Tour Championship Preview), 16th November 1999 #M111, 9th November 1999 #M110, 2nd November 1999 #M109, 26th October 1999 #M108, 19th October 1999 #M107, 13th October 1999 #M106, 4th October 1999 #M105, 24th September 1999 #M104, 13th September 1999 #M103 (U.S. Open Preview), 30th August 1999 #M102, 24th August 1999 #M101, 17th August 1999 #M100, 11th August 1999 #M99, 3rd August 1999 #M98, 27th July 1999 #M97, 13th July 1999 #M96, 6th July 1999 #M95 (Wimbledon Preview), 21st June 1999 #M94, 21st June 1999 #M93, 8th June 1999 #M92 (French Open Preview), 24th May 1999 #M91, 18th May 1999 #M90, 11th May 1999 #M89, 4th May 1999 #M88, 20th April 1999 #M87, 14th April 1999 #M86, 30th March 1999 #M85, 16th March 1999 #M84, 10th March 1999 #M83, 1st March 1999 #M82, 26th February 1999 #M81, 17th February 1999 #M80, 9th February 1999 #M79, 1st February 1999 #M78 (Australian Open Preview), 20th January 1999 #M77, 13th January 1999

#W91 (Year-End Special), 24th December 1999 #W90 (Tour Championship Preview), 16th November 1999 #W89, 9th November 1999 #W88, 2nd November 1999 #W87, 27th October 1999 #W86, 19th October 1999 #W85, 13th October 1999 #W84, 4th October 1999 #W83, 28th September 1999 #W82, 12th September 1999 #W81 (U.S. Open Preview), 29th August 1999 #W80, 23rd August 1999 #W79, 17th August 1999 #W78, 11th August 1999 #W77, 3rd August 1999 #W76, 22nd July 1999 #W75, 13th July 1999 #W74, 6th July 1999 #W73 (Wimbledon Preview), 20th June 1999 #W72, 15th June 1999 #W71, 8th June 1999 #W70 (French Open Preview), 24th May 1999 #W69, 18th May 1999 #W68, 11th May 1999 #W67, 4th May 1999 #W66, 19th April 1999 #W65, 16th April 1999 #W64, 6th April 1999 #W63, 30th March 1999 #W62, 16th March 1999 #W61, 1st March 1999 #W60, 26th February 1999 #W59, 17th February 1999 #W58, 9th February 1999 #W57, 1st February 1999 #W56 (Australian Open Preview), 20th January 1999 #W55, 14th January 1999

1998

#M76 (Year-End Special), 3rd December 1998 #M75 (Tour Championship Preview), 16th November 1998 #M66 (U.S. Open Preview), 31st August 1998 #M58 (Wimbledon Preview), 23rd June 1998 #M55 (French Open Preview), 25th May 1998 #M40 (Australian Open Preview), 18th January 1998

#W54 (Year-End Special), 29th November 1998 #W53 (Tour Championship Preview), 16th November 1998 #W44 (U.S. Open Preview), 31st August 1998 #W36 (Wimbledon Preview), 22nd June 1998

1997

#M38 (Year-End Special), 18th November 1997 #M37 (Tour Championship Preview), 11th November 1997 #M28 (U.S. Open Preview), 25th August 1997 #M1 (#69), 3rd January 1997

#W35 (Year-End Special), January 1998 #W33 (Tour Championship Preview), 12th November 1997 #W25 (U.S. Open Preview), 25th August 1997 #W1, 3rd January 1997

1996

#31, 9th January 1996

1995

#1, 15th March 1995

Credits

Data for the SRI Rankings Top 50 Men comes from a number of sources:

• The ATP Tour site has up-to-date ATP Rankings, ATP Tour Results, Challengers, and "International Tennis Weekly", a magazine. I reckon ITW is the best part of this site - other than that, the ATP has a history of online dictatorship, blocking access to fans (see JD below), and refusing to link to anywhere else that might be of interest. They really don't understand the nature of the Web.
• Steve Gocha is maintaining an excellent record of all results.
• JD (Jacqueline Dupree) was men's tennis most visible advocate on the web. Her site contains immaculate data of matches and rankings up until early 1997.

For the SRI Rankings Top 50 Women, there are almost as many references:

• The WTA Tour is the official site, but I only use it for the rankings.
• Michael Blue keeps an archive of all WTA Tour results in a computer-friendly format.

A big thankyou to Tennis Worldwide, whose magazine hosted the SRI Rankings Top 50 in the past.

Comparison with the ATP & WTA systems

This ranking is not intended to completely replace the ATP or WTA Ranking. In fact, it shows that the ATP and WTA systems are more reliable than most people think.

As with the official methods, the past full year of results is used. For the ATP Tour, we have access to all Grand Slam, Tour, and Challenger results; while for the WTA Tour, we only have access to Grand Slams and Tour events, and the qualifying rounds for these. Two tournaments which do not attract official points, the Grand Slam Cup and the Olympics, are included in the SRI Rankings dataset.

However, this system removes the two most disliked aspects of the official Computer ranking: (1) the point-accumulation system (and 14-tournament divisor on the ATP computer) is replaced by an arbitrary 20-match qualification cut-off, allowing good players to show up earlier, and nullifying point-gathering by players by including even the weakest results in the average; (2) the stagger is virtually eliminated, by (in most cases) replacing last year's results only when the corresponding tournament is played this year.

Contact Details

If you have any questions about SRI Rankings, please write to me at darren@aaii.com.au. SRI Rankings Top 50 mailing list subscriptions (either Men's or Women's tennis rankings) and back issues are available by writing to this address.