How the ATP Race to Turin and the WTA Race to the Finals work, and why they aren’t the same thing as the ranking.
Every autumn the commentary fills with talk of “the Race.” Who’s in, who needs a big week, who’s mathematically out. It sounds like the ranking. It isn’t. The Race is a separate table with its own rules, and this is how it works.
The Race (the ATP Race to Turin, and on the women’s side the WTA Race to the Finals) counts only the points a player has won since 1 January of the current season. It resets to zero every New Year. Its one job is to decide who qualifies for the season-ending championships: the eight best players of the year.
The ranking works differently. It is a rolling 52-week total that always looks back a full year regardless of the date (see how ATP rankings work). In January the two tables can look nothing alike. The ranking still reflects last season; the Race has barely begun. By November they converge, since most of the ranking’s 52 weeks are now this-season points anyway.
Because the Race counts only this season, a strong autumn can vault a player up it in a hurry. There are no old points to defend within the Race itself. That is why the final weeks, and the big indoor events in particular, so often decide the last one or two Finals spots. One deep run at a Masters 1000 or WTA 1000 can outweigh a whole quiet summer.
The ATP and WTA Finals use a round-robin format: players are drawn into groups and earn points for each match they win in the group stage, then more for reaching and winning the semifinals and final. It adds up. An undefeated champion at the Finals can bank an enormous haul, and those points, like any others, sit on the ranking for 52 weeks before falling off (see how points fall off).
atprank.com computes the Race live alongside the ranking, so you can see where a player stands in the qualification picture as results come in, not just at the Monday update. Open the ATP Race or the WTA Race, or compare the two systems in ATP vs WTA rankings.
atprank.com is an independent project, not affiliated with the ATP, WTA or ITF. Qualification rules summarized here reflect the current format; the tours publish the official regulations.
