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ATPWorldTour.com looks at the top Movers of the Week in the ATP Rankings, as of Monday, 13 August 2018

No. 15 (Career High) Stefanos Tsitsipas, +12
The #NextGenATP Greek, who was at No. 168 in the ATP Rankings only 12 months ago, is now at a career-high No. 15 after a sensational week at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, which included four Top 10 consecutive victories — over Dominic Thiem, Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev and Kevin Anderson — en route to his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final. The 20-year-old fell to World No. 1 Rafael Nadal and earns a 12-spot rise from No. 27. Read More & Watch Toronto Final Highlights

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No. 27 (Career High) Karen Khachanov, +11
The Russian moved into his first Masters 1000 semi-final in Canada, beating No. 9-ranked John Isner in the third round to end a nine-match losing streak against Top 10 opponents (3-12 lifetime). The 22-year-old jumped 11 places to a career-high No. 27 with his first tour-level semi-final since lifting the Open Provence 13 trophy in February. Khachanov started 2018 at No. 45.

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No. 56 Daniil Medvedev, +12
The Russian qualified for Toronto and reached the third round in his 11th Masters 1000 tournament, matching his best result at the BNP Paribas Open in March. The 22-year-old moved up 12 positions to No. 56, which is eight places off his career-high of No. 48 (on 24 July 2017).

No. 100 (Career High) Ilya Ivashka, +25
The Belarusian qualified for his second Masters 1000 tournament in Toronto, beating Yuichi Sugita and Ryan Harrison en route to the third round (l. to Anderson) for a 25-place rise and a place in the Top 100 for the first time. The 25-year-old was at No. 230 in the ATP Rankings on 1 January.

Other Notable Top 100 Movers This Week
No. 3 (Career High) Juan Martin del Potro, +1
No. 38 (Career High) Frances Tiafoe, +3
No. 42 (Career High) Nicolas Jarry, +2
No. 43 (Career High) Alex de Minaur, +2
No. 63 Feliciano Lopez, +8

ATPWorldTour.com looks at the top Movers of the Week in the ATP Rankings, as of Monday, 20 August 2018

No. 6 Novak Djokovic, +4
The 31-year-old became the first player to achieve the Career Golden Masters after completing his collection of ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophies at the Western & Southern Open. In his sixth final at the Ohio-based event, Djokovic lifted his first trophy after a straight-sets win over seven-time champion Roger Federer.

The 31-time Masters 1000 titlist was pushed to a deciding set in four of his six encounters in Cincinnati and beat three Top 10 opponents en route to the title. With 4,445 points, Djokovic climbs four places to No. 6 in the ATP Rankings. Read More & Watch Highlights

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No. 10 David Goffin, +1
Coming into the Western & Southern Open, Goffin had lost five of his seven most recent tour-level matches. But the Belgian found his form in Cincinnati, defeating Rogers Cup finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas, Benoit Paire and Top 10 rivals Kevin Anderson and Juan Martin del Potro to reach the semi-finals. At No. 10, Goffin moves up one position to re-enter the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings.

No. 25 Milos Raonic, +4
The Canadian reached his fourth Western & Southern Open quarter-final in six visits to Cincinnati without dropping a set. Raonic defeated Dusan Lajovic, Malek Jaziri and countryman Denis Shapovalov before a three-set loss to eventual champion Djokovic in the last eight. The 27-year-old, now 24-10 at tour-level this season, rises four positions to No. 25 in the ATP Rankings.

Other Notable Top 100 Movers This Week
No. 28 Denis Shapovalov, +4
No. 40 (Career High) Marton Fucsovics, +8
No. 41 Leonardo Mayer, +9
No. 48 Robin Haase, +7
No. 82 Marius Copil, +10
No. 85 (Career High) Jaume Munar, +6
No. 88 Vasek Pospisil +6
No. 94 Paolo Lorenzi, +9
No. 95 Bradley Klahn, +7
No. 99 (Career High) Jason Kubler, +10

The Emirates ATP Rankings were born on 23 August 1973. After quickly earning legitimacy and credibility, the rankings have become an indispensable part of tennis accepted universally by players, tournaments and fans.

It’s a universal goal of tennis players: To become the No. 1 player in the world. Kids dream of it, pros fight tooth and nail for it, yet it remains among the most elusive achievements in the sport. In the 40-year history of the Emirates ATP Rankings, only 25 players have reached the summit, with just 16 finishing the season as year-end No. 1.

Yet without the foresight of ATP founding fathers, the rankings landscape may look entirely different. From the dawn of Open Era tennis in 1968, rankings were largely a subjective calculation, generated by national tennis associations, circuits and a number of eminent tennis journalists who compiled their own lists.

“Tingay's was really the only one that counted,” recalls former ATP European Director and acclaimed tennis writer Richard Evans, referring to the rankings produced by The Daily Telegraph’s Lance Tingay. “National Associations produced their own rankings, which meant that tournament committees attempted to secure the No. 1 player from each country,” remembers John Barrett, a former player and ATP Board member. “The major championships permitted associations to nominate four players from their country.”

It was all low tech and with no real purpose, as tournaments invited players on the basis of their reputation as Stan Smith, the World No. 1 in 1971-72, highlights. “The history leading up to the ranking system included a ‘star system’ as far as entries into the tournaments. Some players would be on a list as players that could help sell tickets for the event and they would have priority over others in acceptance into tournaments. This caused great concern for those that didn’t have a big name and were borderline getting into events. There were definitely some battles with tournaments over this star system.” Bob Kramer adds, “Tournament draws often featured eight players based on domestic national rankings, eight players based on an international ranking and a handful of other players worthy of acceptance.”

By August 1972, it became clear that the newly created Association of Tennis Professionals needed to establish a ranking system free of personal opinion and prejudice. “Jack Kramer, the first Executive Director of the ATP, wanted prize money only tournaments and not events that offered guarantees to players – as had happened in the ‘shamateur’ era of the past decade, when you were invited on reputation,” adds Barrett. Smith remembers, “The ranking system was a hot point for the players and it continued to be very important. The ATP felt that it wanted to control the ranking program and not let the ITF or anyone else control it.”

Working with the first ATP President, Cliff Drysdale, Jack Kramer sought help from the ATP Board including Arthur Ashe, Jim McManus and Charlie Pasarell, and received special input from Owen Davidson, Mike Estep, Fred McNair, Sherwood Stewart and others to devise a practical computer ranking that provided a fair analysis of a player’s performance as well as an objective means to determine entries into tournament. “We did not want the computer to be used as a way to incentivise a player to enter any particular tournament,” says Drysdale. “In other words, to purely be a way to rank players according to ability. Nothing more. In those early days we also gave points weighted according to the ranking of players he beat. So if you beat a seed, you got more points.”

Twelve months after the ATP was founded, Ilie Nastase became the first No. 1. He was among 186 players to be listed in the first ‘ATP International Player Rankings’ of Monday, 23 August 1973 (pictured below), produced and printed out on gigantic computer paper by TRW, a major aerospace company, having been meticulously calculated by Bob Kramer from his Los Angeles office. Dennis Spencer, who replaced Bob Kramer on ATP Rankings duty in December 1975, says, “Bob made an agreement with a guy from TRW to process the rankings. Most journalists thought that made sense because in their minds the ATP Rankings might as well have been from outer space!”

Bob Kramer recalls, “I struck a deal with Simon Ramo of TRW to provide a resource based on a points system to establish the rankings, which was one of the key principles behind the founding of the ATP in 1972. Ramo was a renowned physicist, engineer, and LA business leader/founder and the 'R' in aerospace manufacturing legend, TRW. As tennis enthusiast, neighbour and a friend of Jack Kramer’s, he 'loaned' us the computer time and initially one of his computer engineers, Bob Kurle, to help ATP run the rankings data each month and eventually, weekly.

“Administered by a panel of people, tournaments were initially divided into categories – A, B, C, etc. – which enabled event organisers to select the players according to their ATP Ranking and determine seedings. I provided the tournament results and related information to Bob Kurle.” Kurle then imputed the data into a server the size of the first floor of the ATP Americas office in Ponte-Vedra Beach [2,020 square metres]. “Within three days, Simon and Bob returned the rankings on huge perforated sheets. I remember putting ATP Rankings sheets from floor to ceiling, week after week on the walls of our LA office. I would double check results, circle inaccuracies and, if required, returned the sheets to TRW for a re-run. Because the ATP produced the rankings once a month in the first few years, we had the time for the manual process, unlike today.”

Spencer confirms Bob Kramer’s memories, but insists that, “There were many weeks when for whatever reason the ‘computer’ didn’t work so I did the rankings by hand. I would print the previous rankings out on the large computer paper, lay it out on my living room floor, get on my hands and knees to mark out the week(s) that were dropping off, add the new results and calculate the new rankings.”

Read Part II: The Rankings That Changed Tennis

No. 36 (Career-High) Daniil Medvedev, +21
The Russian captured his second tour-level title of the season at the Winston Salem Open, defeating American Steve Johnson 6-4, 6-4 in the championship match. Medvedev, who also defeated 15th seed Alex de Minaur in a repeat of the Sydney International final, did not drop a set en route to the title. The 22-year-old climbs 21 positions in the ATP Rankings to a career-high No. 36. Read More & Watch Highlights

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No. 31 Steve Johnson, +3
The 28-year-old reached his third tour-level championship match of the season without dropping a set before his loss to Medvedev. Johnson defeated Top 3 seeds Kyle Edmund and Pablo Carreno Busta to reach the final, where he was bidding to become the ninth player since 2010 to claim a tour-level trophy on all three surfaces in one season, and the first American to do so since Sam Querrey in 2010. The American rises three spots to No. 31, with a return to the Top 30, for the first time since 25 June 2017, within touching distance.

No. 42 (Career-High) Nicolas Jarry, +5
The Chilean reached his seventh tour-level quarter-final of the season in Winston-Salem, falling to Taro Daniel of Japan in the last eight. Jarry, who owns a 24-17 tour-level record this season, beat Andreas Seppi and Jan-Lennard Struff in straight sets on his debut in North Carolina. The 22-year-old jumps five places to quickly return to a career-high No. 42 position in the ATP Rankings. Jarry first reached the No. 42 spot on 13 August.

Other Notable Top 100 Movers This Week
No. 53 Ryan Harrison, +3
No. 57 Matteo Berrettini, +3
No. 64 Taro Daniel, +12
No. 92 Bradley Klahn, +3

Aussie set for US Open debut after breaking into the Top 100
It was a scorching late-summer afternoon in New York. The sun set the the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center ablaze, as players continued their final preparations for the 2018 US Open.
In other words, it was your typical Friday at Flushing Meadows. But, on that day, nothing was ordinary for Jason Kubler.
Three years after making his lone qualifying bid at the hard-court Grand Slam, the 25-year-old Aussie stood inside the gates with his first main draw credential in hand. How did Kubler go from not being able to stand on a hard court to playing in the US Open as a Top 100 player? Not even he knows.
Exactly one year ago, Kubler was outside the Top 900 of the ATP Rankings. Any thoughts of competing here were so distant, they were barely a dream. At the time, the Brisbane native was recovering from a debilitating shoulder injury, the latest setback in his long road to recovery.
But now, he is a Top 100 player for the first time, up to a career-high No. 98. That's an 841-spot surge in a span of just one year. For perspective, last year, the biggest boost to the Top 100 was 619 spots by fellow Aussie Matthew Ebden. Literally off the charts.
"The whole year has been full of surprises," Kubler told ATPWorldTour.com prior to his US Open debut. "This is my first full season playing on all surfaces. Last year, imagine someone saying that I would get a wild card into the Aussie Open. And then they say that I would qualify for Wimbledon. And even after that, I'd get a wild card into the US Open and then I'd be Top 100. It's just crazy."

With the US Open not even one day old, the tournament already has its feel-good, compelling narrative. A former junior No. 1 whose career was derailed due to a hereditary knee condition that results in weakened meniscus, Kubler was forced to compete exclusively on clay for many years. But, fully healthy, he has finally made the transition to hard courts and the results have been nothing short of extraordinary.
Behind a pair of ATP Challenger Tour titles on home soil in Traralgon and Playford, both as a qualifier, Kubler opened his hard-court career with a 17-1 mark as the 2018 season got underway. With his victory in Playford, he became the first qualifier to win a title without dropping a set in nine years. And thus far, he is the match wins leader in 2018 at 35-14. Moreover, his wins total on clay: zero. From exclusively competing on the dirt to an unstoppable force on hard, not even Kubler has an explanation for his abrupt change in fortune.
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"Traralgon was cool because that was originally where I hurt my knee. That was 10 years ago. Now, 10 years later, I won the title. That was really cool. Then, to win two more titles in Playford and Winnipeg (Canada), there are no words.
"When I was younger, I'd literally touch a hard court and my knee would swell up. Now, I don't know what's happening or why it's happening, but all is fine. I haven't even gotten any points on clay in more than a year. I've played three tournaments this year and I haven't won a match."
Kubler
As for the Top 100 breakthrough itself, the Aussie describes it as a stressful week at the Odlum Brown VanOpen in Vancouver earlier this month. He would reach his third final of the season, saving a match point to defeat Gregoire Barrere 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-2. With Stan Wawrinka concurrently falling to Roger Federer in the Western & Southern Open quarter-finals, the win officially sealed Kubler's Top 100 fate.
"I actually thought my quarter-final against JC Aragone was going to put me into the Top 100. That's what some of the Aussie guys were saying. I woke up a bit stressed that day. I remember I was getting cranky. But then I won the match and I found out I was No. 101, because Wawrinka made quarters in Cincy. And Ilya Ivashka was still in the tournament in Vancouver. If Wawrinka beats Federer and Ivashka stays in the tournament, I was thinking that I would have to win the title.
"But after I had so much stress in that match, I was thinking that I just had to play my game against Barrere. I didn't think about it. I worked myself up so much with that Aragone match. And now I can say that when I got into the Top 100, I saved a match point to do it."
Jason Kubler: Conquering His Comfort Zone
Eight years removed from his tour-level debut at the 2010 Australian Open (l. to Ljubicic), Kubler enters Flushing Meadows in search of his first Grand Slam win. He opens against 19th seed Roberto Bautista Agut on Monday, second on Court 7.
It will be his first match as a Top 100 player and one that the Aussie is relishing more than any other.
"I'm excited for this. I haven't played Bautista Agut, but I'll talk to Jordan Thompson because he did. And I'll ask some of the Aussie coaches. I'm just excited to play best-of-five matches. I did it for the first time in ages in Australia and then at Wimbledon. I've played enough where I'm thinking that it's not brand new to me. At this point, everything is a bonus. I never expected to be where I am and I'm just going to enjoy it."