Sports Talk

Info: how the tennis rankings actually work (simple version)

With all the talk of Zverev and the No 1 spot, here is the basic system.

Points come from tournaments over the last 52 weeks. When a tournament from last year comes around again, last year's points drop off and new points are added. A Grand Slam winner gets 2000 points, the biggest events below that give 1000, and so on down.

So the ranking is a rolling total, not a season score. That's why a player can rise to No 1 in a week where they do not even win the tournament: someone above them dropped points from last year.