The graph shows how the world ranking needed to be in the GB top 25 has varied over recent years - this gives some idea of depth.
The tables below show the actual numbers & a comparison with other nations that had more than 25 players with singles rankings.
Why choose 25 as the no. of players to look at & would changing this arbitrary number make a big difference? See note at end of page.
Rankings of the 25th highest-ranked British Rankings of the 25th highest ATP-ranked & WTA-ranked
ATP & WTA singles players annually from singles players from all other nations with 25 or more
2002 and quarterly since the end of 2007 world ranked players as at 31 December 2013
Approx. World ranking of GB no. 25 No. 25's Ranked No. 25's Ranked
Date ATP WTA ATP-WTA Posn Country ATP rank players P Country WTA rank players
(30 Dec) (6 Jan)
31/12/2002 1094 838 256 1 FRA 269 137 1 USA 204 110
31/12/2003 923 857 66 2 ESP 311 100 2 RUS 282 105
31/12/2004 832 985 -153 3 USA 380 132 3 JPN 481 68
31/12/2005 696 846 -150 4 GER 402 114 4 CZE 560 42
31/12/2006 800 824 -24 5 ARG 409 100 5 FRA 562 61
31/12/2007 1001 790 211 6 ITA 418 110 6 CHN 574 45
31/03/2008 1051 830 221 7 BRA 608 81 7 GER 577 55
30/06/2008 1037 870 167 8 AUS 628 72 8 ITA 620 59
30/09/2008 980 1004 -24 9 GBR 707 74 9 UKR 703 38
31/12/2008 963 909 54 10 RUS 772 91 10 ESP 833 34
31/03/2009 945 938 7 11 JPN 909 54 11 AUS 853 40
30/06/2009 919 954 -35 12 CZE 924 49 12 ROU 853 36
30/09/2009 883 882 1 13 AUT 1186 41 13 GBR 1065 29
31/12/2009 920 910 10 14 SRB 1208 37 14 NED 1144 27
31/03/2010 1016 935 81 15 BEL 1231 38 15 ARG 1144 30
30/06/2010 922 939 -17 16 CRO 1285 36 16 BRA 1186 32
30/09/2010 978 943 35 17 IND 1313 56
31/12/2010 1027 997 30 18 CHI 1449 37 81 countries had at least 1 player
31/03/2011 951 1001 -50 19 NED 1465 31 with a WTA singles ranking & 39
30/06/2011 952 959 -7 20 KOR 1486 38 had at least 10, so although GBR
30/09/2011 813 876 -63 20 SVK 1519 30 is 13th in the above table, it is
31/12/2011 729 1054 -325 22 ROU 1674 35 worth remembering that there are
30/03/2012 798 1017 -219 23 SUI 1674 31 lots of countries that did not even
30/06/2012 810 1052 -242 24= CHN 1790 31 have 25 ranked players, including
30/09/2012 779 1134 -355 24= SWE 1790 31 Belgium, Croatia, India, Slovakia,
31/12/2012 744 1146 -402 26= COL 1790 28 Serbia, Switzerland, Sweden &
31/03/2013 741 1119 -378 26= MEX 1790 28 Korea, which all had 20-24 players
30/06/2013 658 1117 -459 26= UKR 1790 28 with WTA singles rankings.
30/09/2013 694 1020 -326 29 CAN 1900 28
31/12/2013 707 1070 -363 30 POL 1985 30
31/03/2014 728 1065 -337 31 ISR 2129 25
30/06/2014 810 1007 -197
30/09/2014 731 1050 -319 100 countries had at least 1 player The 3 counting events or 10 pts
31/12/2014 731 942 -211 with an ATP singles ranking & 49 rule largely explains why fewer
31/03/2015 717 1051 -334 had at least 10. countries have 25+ ranked WTA
30/06/2015 814 1090 -276 players than ATP players.
30/09/2015 919 1134 -215
31/12/2015 839 1033 -194
31/03/2016 846 1013 -167
30/06/2016 869 1013 -144
30/09/2016 924 952 -28
N.B. 10 Jun 13 - 611
Some notes on these figures
There is some discussion about these figures as they
were in Nov 2012 on the original version of this table at:
http://bit.ly/YjERjZ
Why base this on 25 players per country and does changing the number paint a different picture?
The above stats are based on the top 25 players from each country simply because I have been producing weekly GB top 25 rankings,
whereabouts & results tables for the last few years and hence it seemed an obvious number to choose.
In fact, the comparison with other countries paints a broadly similar picture of GB's depth for any number well into double figures you pick.
In ATP terms, GB comes 9th or 10th if you pick any number of players for each country from 13 upwards.
In WTA terms, GB comes between 13th and 15th if you look at any number of players for each country from 16 onwards.
Other GB tennis stats