INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Tommy Paul is going to be seriously annoyed if his stay in the top 10 of the men’s tennis rankings amounts to a five-week cup of coffee.
When tennis players go into a soliloquy about how they don’t pay attention to the rankings or have the faintest idea how many points they have — or stand to lose — from week to week or match to match, they’re not being entirely honest.
These men and women signed up for a life where numbers define them. They know there is a difference between being No. 5 and No. 6, and No. 10 and No. 11, and No. 1 and No. 2. One number meaning that much is pretty arbitrary and maybe even unfair, but it’s real, and not just because they have contracts laden with performance bonuses and the easier money that comes with being inside the top 10.
So it is for Paul and Taylor Fritz, the top two American men. Both are off to promising starts in the so-called Sunshine Double of the BNP Paribas and Miami Opens, at slightly different altitudes. Fritz is holding steady at world No. 4 while nursing an injury to his right oblique muscle; Paul was hanging on to No. 10 until shoulder pain and a stomach bug that ran through the field in Acapulco, Mexico, cost him some of those precious ranking points.
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