Why Do Players Care After the US Open?: Point Defense

A lot of sports commentators call the US Open the end of the year for tennis because it is the last slam of the year.  But tennis still goes on until the end of the ATP/WTA Championships.  So what the heck is the reason?  Can't the players finally take a nap and heal?  The answer of course is NO for a few reasons: Point Defense, Davis/Fed Cup, Year End Finals.

Point Defense

Every now and then you hear that a player has "points to defend."  And they NEVER go out of their way to explain what the heck that means!  I am willing to bet that non pro commentators have no idea either.  The pro says it so fast everyone just says "sure."

Well....the scores you see on the rankings are the players total score from last year (52 weeks of tennis).  Every week that goes by they compare to the previous week and add or subtract the score from last years total.  Most of the events pretty much happen on the same exact week every year.

Examples:

So Marin Cilic won the 2014 US Open this year.  Last year he missed 9 months starting before the US Open because of a doping suspension.  That means that he has 0 points to defend for the rest of the year and every point he makes goes positively towards his ranking.

On the other hand Rafael Nadal won the US Open in 2013.  He didn't play 2014 due to an injury.  That means he will take the opposite hit (2000 points) for the rankings that Cilic took.

Novak Djokovic was runner up two years in a row (2013 and 2012).  His points after the US Open didn't change at all.

2013

2012

I assume they do it like this so that ALL players in the world don't start off at 0 ranking.  If a pro nobody like Cici Bellis should get a wildcard into the Aussie Open and upset Maria Sharapova without this system, Maria would be ranked lower than Cici automatically.

Whew! (wipes sweat from brow) that gets confusing!