Chapter 280 World Ranking
On Monday, July 21, 2014, the ATP official website announced the latest world ranking. Djokovic, Nadal and Federer still held the top three positions.
However, the fourth place is not another giant Murray.
Last September, Murray was ruled out for the season due to a back injury. He has not been able to find his touch since his comeback at the beginning of the year. Although he reached the semi-finals of the French Open, he was eliminated in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon and failed to defend his title. His ranking points have dropped significantly, and in the latest ranking he has slipped to tenth.
This week, the fourth place is occupied by Swiss player Stan-Wawrinka.
This late bloomer defeated Djokovic in the quarterfinals and Nadal in the final at the Australian Open earlier this year, winning his first Grand Slam trophy at the age of 29. Now, he has also reached the highest ranking of his career.
Among the top ten, the most eye-catching are three young players:
Seventh, 23-year-old Milos Raonic; Eighth, 25-year-old Juan Martin del Potro; Ninth, 23-year-old Grigor Dimitrov.
In addition, Kei Nishikori, who is ranked eleventh, is only twenty-four years old.
It can be clearly seen here that players born after 1990 are entering a period of rapid growth, which has once again led professionals to question whether "the younger generation can become the leader in breaking the monopoly of the Big Four."
The North American season, which ends with the US Open, has kicked off with great fanfare. This has made people full of expectations for the performance of young players, and they are speculating which young player will bring surprises this year. But apart from the top 100, the rankings behind are also turbulent.
Who can say that the next football champion is not hiding here? Tobias thinks so.
One hundred, two hundred, three hundred... When you look at the list beyond the top four hundred, you can see a name that makes its debut:
"473, +1769, China, Wen-Gao, 18, 80, 1, 0".
How to read this data? It's not difficult.
World ranking is 473rd, up 1,769 places from last week.
Then comes the data of nationality, name, age, etc.
The last three numbers are quite special: total points, 80 points; number of tour events participated in, one; and the number of points decreased from the previous week, zero points.
After a detailed interpretation, it becomes clear.
With the 80 points from the Binghamton Challenge Championship, Gao Wen went from being an unknown person with no world ranking to being among the top 500 in one fell swoop. He ranked 473rd on the list for the first time, riding a rocket and emerging from nowhere.
Although it is always easier to move up the rankings after the 500th place, and often one point can move up several places, Gao Wen's debut still brought quite a surprise, especially considering that Gao Wen had no record of participating in any hope or challenge competitions before Binghamton, which made it even more rare.
The official ATP and ITF websites both reported on the event, paying attention to the rising star.
If you read this issue's world rankings carefully again, Karen Khachanov is ranked 404th, Andrey Rublev is ranked 462nd, Daniil Medvedev is ranked 1751st, and Stefanos Tsitsipas is ranked 2133rd.
These players are all new generation players who will be ranked in the top ten in the future. Like Gao Wen, they have just started their professional careers. So they can feel the power of Gao Wen's ranking. He has also officially joined the ranks of the new generation of players. That sense of reality has suddenly become clear and weighs heavily on his chest.
This is Tobias' confidence.
While Gawain and his friends rushed to Lexington, Tobias came to New York and personally visited... Adidas.
reason?
Why Adidas and not Nike?
In fact, Tobias has always had a very close relationship with Nike. Another professional player of his, Dimitrov, is signed with Nike. But this time Tobias did not find Nike, but chose Adidas. Naturally, he had his own calculations.
As we all know, globally, Nike and Adidas have very similar market shares. In terms of endorsements and sponsorships in competitive sports, the two major brands are also competing with each other. However, in the field of tennis, Nike has broken the balance and is far ahead of its competitors.
On the men's side, Nike owns two superstars, Federer and Nadal; on the women's side, the two top players with the most money and market appeal, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, also all belong to Nike. It is no exaggeration to say that Nike has an absolute advantage.
Moreover, tennis is different from other sports because it is an individual sport and there are many variables in brand signings. In addition to Nike and Adidas, Crocodile, Fila, Under Armour, Asics, New Balance, etc. are all very competitive, which further increases the difficulty of the two giants' monopoly.
Take the latest world rankings as an example. Among the top ten players, four are Nike-contracted players, namely Federer, Nadal, Thomas-Berdych and Dimitrov. The other six players belong to six different brands, while Adidas has no one.
Yes, zero seats.
Originally, Adidas was Murray's sponsor, but last year Murray was injured and his season was over. The contract between the two parties expired and they were unable to reach an agreement on the contract, so Murray joined Under Armour, which put Adidas into such a predicament.
The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!
Is Adidas ready to give up on the tennis market? Obviously not.
According to authoritative market research results, among many competitive sports, tennis ranks fourth in terms of the number of global fans and the potential of the global market, second only to football, basketball and track and field.
In other words, the commercial prospects of tennis are unquestionable, and compared with other sports, tennis equipment is more practical and fashionable. People are willing to buy tennis peripherals as daily clothing, which also means that there is still more potential for market sales to be tapped.
How could Adidas give up so easily? In fact, Adidas has been trying to break through from female players. Ana-Ivanovic and Caroline-Wozniacki, two female players who once topped the world, are their leading actresses. It can be seen that Adidas still hopes to go the route of fashion, youth and beautiful girls to compete with Nike.
However, the situation is not optimistic.
In addition, there is one very, very important point: the Chinese market.
Nike has gained a firm foothold in China by signing Li Na, but what about Adidas? In fact, Adidas signed a group of young Chinese male players before Nike, hoping that they could make a name for themselves, but so far there has been no success, and there is no sign of opening up the Chinese market.
It is precisely because of this that Tobias believes that Adidas is more eager and more urgent, and naturally, he has more room for maneuver.
Now, Tobias wants to provide Adidas with an opportunity, an opportunity to open up the Chinese market, an opportunity to change the tennis market landscape. He firmly believes that Adidas should seize this opportunity, just like grasping a life-saving straw.
Second update.
(End of this chapter)