Woodbridge: Does being world No.1 matter?

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about world No.1 – both men and women – this season. I was asked recently whether rankings matter as much to players as they do to fans and the media?

As a young player, rankings are an integral part of goal-setting: how good can I be? What can I reach? For me, in singles, the Top 20 mark was a big deal. Top 15 was next but I wasn’t able to crack that. It’s four places and you think you’re close, but you’re so far away. Those are the defining markers that place you in a bracket as a quality of player.

RELATED: #SmashTalk – The real Top 5?

As for the players at the top, you can’t quantify a percentage difference that being No.1 makes to your performance. What it does is it allows you to walk out onto court, play at a certain level for long enough and win a match before it is finished. The psychological attributes of being No.1 can crush your opponent.

On the other hand, you also have to absorb it at the front end – when you face a player playing above themselves because they have nothing to lose. But as a player you recognise that very quickly, and there might be a period in a match – there’s always a breaking point, maybe a single shot or a couple of games – when you know that you’ve got them.

We saw that when Lucas Pouille was playing Rafa Nadal in Beijing recently. He had a match point, missed a relatively straightforward volley, and that was it. What happens in that scenario is that the top player, Rafa in this instance, loses their stress, their shot-making and decision making becomes clearer, and they start playing free.

DID YOU READ? Woodbridge – Who is the player of the year?

I’ve been on the other side, where Pouille was, where you think ‘I’ve blown it’ and your intensity drops. There’s a realisation that you’ve been playing at your peak and you can feel yourself coming off that level. Your opponent senses that, and that’s when rankings count.

The other time being No.1 helps is with momentum. Mark Woodforde and I would start a tournament tentatively, but then find our form around the quarters, and knew we would go on to win. We could sense the moments in a match when we had to make our move – that came down to confidence and belief.

I was number one for 204 weeks, and then scaled back my tournament schedule because of kids and travel and that meant foregoing the No.1 ranking. My performances were always strong at Masters and Grand Slam level, but I needed another five or six tournaments to get back to the top, which I always felt that I could do if I wanted to. Because of that, towards the end of my career I was focused on Slams and Masters titles rather than being the No.1.

DID YOU READ? Federer v Nadal – A rivalry forged in friendship

That’s where it will be interesting when a player like Serena returns. She will believe she is the best player in the world regardless of her ranking, and perhaps look at the players above her and think: ‘it’s still mine, and I’m not prepared to give it up until someone else can come and dominate’.

It’s a different story on the ATP at the moment. The No.1s in the men have maintained an extraordinary level over a long period of time. Nobody else has been able to match the ‘Big Four’ in the same way that nobody has matched Serena in terms of depth and intensity over such a sustained period of time.