2010 Nations Cup rankings; Spain secures the top spot
With the last competition of the year over and done at the O2 Arena in London, the Spanish side won the honour of the Nations Cup champions with 2460 points, on Wednesday.
The Nations Cup is basically a ranking system that evaluates the overall performances of the tennis contenders on the WTA as well as ATP tour from a particular country. The side with the highest success throughout the season is
declared the Nations Cup champion in the end.
This week marks the final Nations Cup of the season. With the WTA year already having concluded back in October and just the top eight players in the men’s side in action last week, there wasn't much to change in the final standings.
Surprisingly, Spain is given the Nation Cup Champion awards, having taken the lead way back during the opening week of May and having relinquished it since. World number one, Rafael Nadal who finished as runner up at the Barclays
ATP World Tour Finals in London last week further strengthened their spot as the dominant country in the world of tennis in 2010. Rafa posted his best results of the season by winning crowns at Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, the 2010 Internazionali BNL d'Italia,
the 2010 Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open, French Open, Wimbledon, United States Open and Rakuten Japan Open. The Spaniard was also a finalist at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open ATP 250 event, semi-finalist in the the BNP Paribas Open, Sony Ericsson Open, Rogers Cup,
PTT Thailand Open and quarter-final in Australian Open, the AEGON Championships and Cincinnati Masters.
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, who is currently ranked number three in the South African Airways ATP list also played well at the end of the year, which furthur assisted his country in earning fourth place in the standings. His semi-final
finish at the season finale World Tour Finals in London just helped Serbia put further distance between themselves and the fifth spot. His other season highlights include a trophy win in the Dubai Tennis Championships, runner-up showing in the United States
Open, semi-final appearances in the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, Wimbledon, Rogers Cup, Shanghai Rolex Masters and quarterfinal efforts in the Australian Open, Internazionali BNL d'Italia and the French Open.
Roger Federer’s comeback to form over the past few months, coincided pretty well with his hiring of Pete Sampras’ former coach, Paul Annacone and his victory over Rafael Nadal at the elite eight man field in London. This has seen
Switzerland sneak into the top five and has allowed them to earn the fifth spot in the final rankings.
The Scottish tennis player, Andy Murray, on the other hand, also enjoyed a run to the semi-final in London, however this was not enough in the end as Britian must make do with an eleventh spot finish on the season.
The United States and Russia stand at number two and three with ranking points of 1565 and 1408 respectively.
According to the Nation Cup’s ranking system, contenders of both genders are given points for making their way into the semi-finals or better of a competition with the total number of points for each player then being added to
their nation’s tally.
The number of points given is weighted not only to show how far a contender progressed but in fact also reflects the toughness of the competition.
Therefore, a major event gives a player 200 points, a Masters Series victory 100 points and so on through the four event categories.
Moreover, a side also receives bonus points if players from a country make it as finalists at a championship.
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