Rankings calculations question !!!

Dear all,

I have read several threads where people have referred to the number of points a person has to defend eg.

PNTS RK NAME
======= ==============
4803 01 J.CAPRIATI... - Defending 696 points until RG
4385 02 V.WILLIAMS... - Defending 308 points until RG
3730 03 M.HINGIS..... - Defending 707 points until RG


I know that points apply for 52 weeks and then I assume they are dropped to be replaced by newly won points. Could someone please explain what is meant by defending points.

Also where do you find out info. on how many points a player has, how many points will be dropped each month and indeed how many points a player will be defending.

Thanks in advance :)

The concept defending points is not exactly true, players are not defending points, as you well said, it's a 52 weeks rolling system and points from the week 53 are dropped off while points from the week 1 are added.

They say defending because that's the number of points they are dropping off and they are related to their perfomance in the tournament, it's not a very good way to call it in my opinion. the meaning is that the player should at least get the same result in order not to lose points in the rankings, which is not true since many factors influence it.

About where to find info, well, I personally have kept old rankings from the end of 1998, in the column points added you have how many points each player has earned with each rankings release. I have the last 52 weeks in an spreadsheet. I don't know of any internet site that offers historical information on the rankings

here are some very good websites for rankings

www.tenniscorner.net

www.geocities.com/jannak36/jannak

http://home17.inet.tele.dk/wta/

ENJOY!