Question about ATP rankings and ATP race?

Question

The following website shows the player points for ATP ranking and race:

http://www.atptennis.com/3/en/rankings/

If I have understood correctly, the ranking is for the previous 52 weeks and the race is from the beginning of the year. So by the end of the year, the two must coincide.

We are now in July. More than half the year is over. Why is there so much difference between the points.

Eg: Nadal - ranking 6055 - race 955 (as of July 18th)

Nadal is in fact playing much better this year. How is this massive difference possible? Can somebody explain?

Answer 1

Well the ranking is used to determine their rank based on the entire year (starting last July 20th) including events such as last years US Open whereas the race only counts events from this season (Starting January of 2008) so last years US Open would not count.  They use the ranking (or rolling system as the 52 weeks slowly changes) so that if a Player like Nadal or Federer coming off the previous season as #1 (Federer the past four, probably Nadal next) does not drop way down (and affect their tournament rankings) just b/c the play poorly in those very early season matches instead that rolling system takes into account their results from the previous year.  The Race system is a way of showing who is playing best that year only so people will accuratley be able to determine the year end #1. The Point system is also different (Ranking=1000pts for a grand slam win, Race=200pts for a grand slam win and so on for lesser tournaments and runner ups) so that is why the points are so far off.