Updated rankings reflecting results from the North West and Under 25 Championships have now been posted.
Dan Tristao’s win in Manchester strengthens his position at the top of the Singles, but there is very little to separate U25 champion Ed Kay and Will Ellison at numbers 2 and 3. Will reached the final in the NW beating Ed in the semi-final but this was not quite enough for him to close the gap. The order of the top ten remains as it was at the end of 2017 so we need to look a little further down the list for more interesting moves. Andrew Boyd enters the top 20 after winning the North West Plate, while Tom Watkinson’s win in the U25 Plate takes him into the top 30.
Some of you may know that in the singles rankings I take into account results for the previous 2 seasons. Good wins against higher ranked players can help your cause, while a bad defeat or two can drag a player back. However, the effect of these adjustments diminishes gradually over time until they disappear altogether. These February rankings are the first ones where the results from the 2015-16 season are wiped from the calculation completely. This will be cause for celebration for some who have been regretting the odd bad day in that season, but equally, some who had some glorious wins 2 years ago will lose out a bit. This explains some of the other ups and downs in this new rankings list.
In the Doubles Will Ellison, who won in the North West with Charlie Brooks, retains his comfortable lead at the top, but there is close competition for the next five places. Dan Grant holds on to 2nd spot but Ed Kay, who was a North West finalist with Matt Shaw, overtakes Dan Tristao at no. 3. Ben Beltrami, who with Ollie Arnold reached the semi-final in Manchester and the final in the U25s, moves up one place to 9th overtaking Theo Parker.
Chris Davey and Rob Whitehorn won the U25 Plate and make good progress, as do their opponents in that final, Julian Hanton and James Smith. Amongst a batch of nine new entries are North West Plate winners from the YM Ged Darlington and Shaun Small, and also veterans Tim Lewis and Stuart Watson, who did not get their points in the Under 25s.
To see the full official rankings, just click on the link below.
Official RFA rankings (opens in separate window).
The official RFA rankings are prepared by Dave Hebden.