How could Novak Djokovic drop to lowly 7th in ATP rankings even if he wins Wimbledon 2022?

Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic kicked off his 2022 Wimbledon campaign on Monday with a win over South Korea's Kwon Soon-woo. Djokovic will play his second game on Wednesday against Australian player Thanasi Kokkinakis. Djokovic is looking to create history by attempting to win his fourth consecutive Wimbledon title this year. Djokovic will become only the fourth player in the tournament's history to achieve the feat if he wins at SW19 this year. 

Meanwhile, Djokovic will also likely drop out of the top five of the ATP rankings early next month. The 2,000 points that the Serbian player earned at the 2021 Wimbledon will be lost, pushing him to the No. 7 position on the men's singles rankings. The decision to remove the ranking points from last year's Wimbledon has been made by the ATP after the prestigious competition decided to bar Russian and Belarusian players from taking part in this year's event. Wimbledon prohibited Russian and Belarusian athletes due to Moscow's conflict with Ukraine.

The ATP and WTA will not award players any ranking points for competing in the Wimbledon this year, thus turning the event into an exhibition tournament. The ATP will update the rankings on July 11 following which Djokovic will move down to the seventh place. Djokovic's new position will be his lowest since he was ranked 10th in August 2018.

Djokovic's rankings were initially impacted after his exclusion from the Australian Open earlier this year. He was surpassed by Daniil Medvedev of Russia for the top spot. His early departure from the French Open in May further hurt his ranking points.

Djokovic on ranking points

Djokovic has stated that the rankings don't have the same impact on him as they once did. The ranking points, he claimed, are no longer important to him because his priorities have changed.

"I don't want to say ranking points are not important for me, of course they are, but they are not as important as they were for me. Now I'm not really chasing the ranking as much as I have. I was breaking the record for longest weeks at number one and after that it wasn't as important for me in terms of priority," Djokovic said after his match on Monday. 

Image: Wimbledon/Instagram