Post-Australian Open ATP rankings: Djokovic back to No. 1, Paul and Shelton make major moves

Already the ATP record holder for most weeks spent at No. 1 in the world, Novak Djokovic returned to the top spot on Monday after winning his 10th Australian Open title on Sunday night. This is Djokovic’s 374th week at No. 1 and he will surpass Steffi Graf’s 377 weeks atop the WTA rankings if he maintains it through the month of February.

Seven of the eight players who reached at least the quarterfinals either equalled or surpassed their previous career-high ranking. Stefanos Tsitsipas, who lost to Djokovic 6-3, 7-6(4), 7-6(5) in Sunday’s final, is back up to No. 3. Semifinalist Tommy Paul soared 16 spots to a best-ever No. 19. Andrey Rublev, Sebastian Korda, Jiri Lehecka, and Ben Shelton were the four players who exited in the quarterfinals. Rublev tied his career-high of No. 5, Korda’s 26th position is his best, Lehecka moved up 32 spots to a best-ever 39th, and Shelton climbed all the way to No. 44 after entering the Aussie Open at 89th.

Only semifinalist Karen Khachanov fell short of his previous best. The 26-year-old, who peaked at No. 8 in 2019, improved from No. 20 to No. 13.

Shelton’s rise–not only at Melbourne Park but also throughout the fall of 2022–has been the most remarkable. The 20-year-old American was playing No. 5 singles for his college team (Florida) in 2021 and No. 3 in 2022 (he ended last season as the NCAA singles champion). Shelton did not have an ATP ranking until July of 2021 and was outside the top 500 as recently as June of 2022.

Other players who set new career-highs following the year’s first Grand Slam were Holger Rune (ninth), Frances Tiafoe (15th), J.J. Wolf (48th), Constant Lestienne (52nd), Mikael Ymer (60th), Gregoire Barrere (76th), Jason Kubler (79th), Michael Mmoh (83rd), Zhizhen Zhang (92nd), and Juan Pablo Varillas (94th).

Other huge movers were Ugo Humbert (No. 106 to No. 86), Alexei Popyrin (No. 113 to No. 90), and Denis Kudla (No. 108 to No. 93).

Meanwhile, 2022 Australian Open champion Rafael Nadal fell four spots to No. 6. Daniil Medvedev, who lost to Nadal in last year’s title match, also dropped four places–out of the top 10 to No. 12. Matteo Berrettini plunged from 14th to 22nd.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.