Dan Tristao and Will Ellison head the newly published End-of-Season Rankings for 2017-18. Dan regains top spot in the Singles while Will retains his lead in the Doubles.
This season sees Ed Kay joining Tristao and Ellison in a tight group heading the Singles, with Ed moving up into second place. Tristao picked up 6 of the season’s 9 open singles events including the National Singles, while Ed Kay won in London and Yorkshire and also picked up titles in the Universities and U25 events. David Butler picked up the other open title in Scotland.
Theo Parker moves into the top ten at 9, while Sam Russell, James Tilston, Ben Jourdan, Ed Hawke and Andrew Boyd all make good progress in the top 20. Tom Kidner from Winchester is the highest new entry at 21. Evergreen John Minta moves up to 24, while James Smith also makes it into the top 30.
Notable new entries further down the list include Ben Kirwan, Nick Woolfenden, Archie McCreath, Peter Winzeler and Lewis Keates. In total the season sees 16 new players added to the Singles Rankings list.
In the Doubles, Will Ellison retains his top spot despite (with Charlie Brooks) losing to Dan Tristao & Dan Grant in the National Doubles final. The Dans did enough over the season to move up to positions 2 and 3 respectively.
Ellison won 4 of the 7 open titles on offer, remarkably all with different partners — Dan Grant, Matt Shaw, Ed Kay and Charlie Brooks. Dan Tristao was involved in all the other 3 titles again with different partners — Ed Kay, David Butler and Dan Grant in the Nationals. If players stuck to the same partners it would make writing these reports a bit easier! In addition to his two titles above, Ed Kay also picked up the Universities and U25 titles, amazingly each time with the same partner, Matt Shaw.
The draw for partners events (where just 50% points are awarded) were won by Nick Woolfenden & Tim Hebblethwaite (South East) and Seb Fraser & Archie McCreath (Scotland).
Andrew Boyd, Sam Russell, Henry Jefferies, Tim Hebblethwaite and Nick Woolfenden all move up into the top 20, with Nick the season’s highest new entry at 20. We see good progress in the top 30 from Richie Murby, Neil Roberts, Seb Fraser (new entry), Archie McCreath, Bart Callaghan, Rob Whitehorn and Nick Geere.
Notable high risers further down the list include Morgan Spillane, Julian Hanton, Ed Hawke, Inigo Ackland, Enrique Castillo Carbonell, Ashley Hill, Lewis Keates, Ben Kirwan, Jai Singh, James Smith, Chris Davey and Peter Winzeler. In total the season sees 27 new players added to the Doubles Rankings list.
There is cause for optimism regarding the season’s Tournament entries, which were very healthy. The total Singles entries across all events (i.e. including Universities and U25) was the second highest on record, the highest being just two years ago in 2015-16. Doubles entries were also strong, the highest since 1984.
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.