Tennis: the giants Roger Federer and Serena Williams are no longer classified

Swiss Roger Federer at Wimbledon 2021 and American Serena Williams at Wimbledon 2022. © Kirsty Wigglesworth & Alberto Pezzali, AP / Montage RFI

Text by: Nicolas Bamba Follow

3 mins

Swiss Roger Federer and American Serena Williams both dropped out of the world tennis rankings on Monday (July 11th).

Absent from the courts for a long time, they lost all of their points.

A first since 1997.

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The face of tennis changed on Monday, July 11, 2022. The day after and two days after the victories of Novak Djokovic and

, the world rankings were turned upside down.

Two big names in the game have just come out.

From now on, Roger Federer and Serena Williams no longer appear in the list of ranked tennis players and tennis women.

A situation that may seem surprising, as these two characters who have not yet retired have monopolized the tops of the yellow ball.

But the rules are clear, and there are no privileges.

Injuries harm both forties

Roger Federer and Serena Williams have simply lost all of their points, respectively in the ATP ranking and in the WTA ranking.

Blame it on their prolonged absence.

It has now been a year since the Swiss has played tennis at the professional level.

Roger Federer, 41 in less than a month, has not appeared on a court since a quarter-final loss at Wimbledon in July 2021. Already absent several times in previous years, the Basel has decided to undergo a new major operation to one knee after his elimination.

He has since recovered and admitted earlier this month that he didn't think " 

 ".

Serena Williams left the 2021 Wimbledon tournament in tears, victim of a leg injury in the first round against Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

The American, who will turn 41 in September, returned to tennis a year later, in the first round of the 2022 edition of the London tournament, where she

.

At the end of June, Roger Federer was 97th in the world, while Serena Williams was ranked 1,204th in the world.

Today, both have no more points and are therefore no longer ranked.

That hadn't happened since 1997, when they first entered the charts.

Djokovic falls in the standings despite his title

The absence of Federer in the ATP ranking is therefore logical, but the latter does not escape criticism.

Indeed,

and his 21st Grand Slam, has gone from 3rd in the world to... 7th in the world.

In question: his non-presence at the Australian Open in January due to his vaccination status, his defeat in the quarter-finals at Roland-Garros against Rafael Nadal in June, and finally the decision of the organizers of Wimbledon not to award no points for this 2022 edition where Russian and Belarusian players were excluded, in reaction to the war in Ukraine.

The Russian Daniil Medvedev, banned, therefore keeps the chair of world number one, ahead of the German Alexander Zverev, absent in London due to injury.

Rafael Nadal moves up to third place, ahead of Stefanos Tsitsipas and Casper Ruud.

Carlos Alcaraz is just ahead of Novak Djokovic.

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