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Currently, in the ATP rankings, Roger Federer is, effectively, just 490 points behind Novak Djokovic with two tournaments, namely ATP Masters 1000 Paris & the ATP World Tour Finals.

Federer, to become No. 1, needs to finish ahead/beat Djokovic in both the tournaments. But if it so happens that Federer falls just short of Djokovic by say 200 points, Djokovic will be awarded the Year End World No. 1. But there is a catch here.

Federer still has to play the Davis cup final later in November & ATP ranking points are awarded to the players for winning Davis cup ties, the breakdown of which is here.

So if Federer wins 250 points through Davis cup, he will effectively overtake Djokovic & lead the rankings by 50 points. But will he be then crowned the Year End No 1 after the Davis cup finals? Or those ranking points will be considered for next year?

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    There are at least some sources which claim that Davis Cup may be a factor. For example, here and here. I was not able to find this question clearly specified in the ruleboo0k
    – Martin
    Commented Oct 31, 2014 at 13:33
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    This article directly on ATP tour mentions that: "The 27-year-old Djokovic has a slender 490-point lead over Federer in the Emirates ATP Race To London going into Paris. There is a potential total of 2,500 points to be earned in Paris and at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, with Federer also having the chance to earn possibly decisive points when he leads Switzerland in the Davis Cup final against France. The Basel native is looking to become the oldest year-end No. 1 by some margin."
    – Martin
    Commented Oct 31, 2014 at 13:55
  • @Martin If it's on the ATP tour website, is it official enough? Also the link in earlier comment sounds confident of his rulebook assessment.
    – KharoBangdo
    Commented Oct 31, 2014 at 15:01
  • Well, it can probably considered official. (I would prefer seeing it mentioned somewhere in the FAQ or rulebook.) I will post this as an answer.
    – Martin
    Commented Oct 31, 2014 at 15:57
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    If you believe what is written here (he seems to know he's talking about) - the Davis Cup points do actually count towards the year end No. 1 ranking. The reason I had thought the year-end No. 1 was crowned after the World Tour Finals was because, in the past 12 years, it's been decided before the end of the year Davis Cup Final - the competition for year-end No. 1 has never been this close before. rogerfedererfans.com/forum/topic/…
    – jamauss
    Commented Nov 2, 2014 at 23:27

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The article Djokovic looking over his shoulder in battle for No. 1, which is published directly on the ATP tour website, mentions that:

The 27-year-old Djokovic has a slender 490-point lead over Federer in the Emirates ATP Race To London going into Paris. There is a potential total of 2,500 points to be earned in Paris and at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, with Federer also having the chance to earn possibly decisive points when he leads Switzerland in the Davis Cup final against France. The Basel native is looking to become the oldest year-end No. 1 by some margin. Previously, Ivan Lendl and Andre Agassi both achieved the feat when they were 29.

To prevent link rot, I will also add a link to the version of this article on Wayback Machine.

Since I was not able to find anything about this in faq or rulebook, this article published directly on the ATP website is the closest thing to official standpoint of ATP I was able to find.

As already menioned in a comment I was able to find some other sources which say that DC finals can be a factor for Year-End No. 1. (Of course, any unofficial source can contain mistakes.) For example: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. (Some of the sources I link there are internet discussions, some of them are blogs or articles. You'll have to decide for yourself to which extent you consider them reliable.)

I should clarify that I was able to find in the 2014 ATP Rulebook (internet archive) several things that are determined from the ranking after World Tour Finals (bonus pool) or even before WTF (commited players). But I did not find a mention of year-end no. 1.

I will copy here some parts from Chapter 1, which are relevant to this these topics:

I. ATP CIRCUIT REGULATIONS

...

C. Commitment Player
A 2014 ATP commitment player is any player positioned in the Top 30 in the ATP 2013 Rankings (singles) as of November 4, 2013.

D. Commitment
... 2014 Davis Cup points may be counted as one (1) of the best of six (6) in the Emirates ATP Rankings, however, it shall not count towards the commitment requirement of a commitment player. ...

...

G. ATP World Tour Masters 1000 & Barclays ATP World Tour Finals (“WTF”) Bonus Pool
Players in good standing shall be eligible for the bonus pool based upon the Emirates ATP Rankings as of the Monday following the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in the current year.

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Any points awarded to Federer for his Davis Cup play in November will go towards his ranking for the following year (2015). The World Tour Finals mark the end of the ATP regular season and the year-end number 1 is awarded (along with many other awards) following the end of the tournament in London. So Federer will need to secure the number one spot by the end of the World Tour Finals in order to be crowned year end No. 1. Basically, the season ends there in London, not on December 31st.

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  • I would really appreciate a source. As Davis cup is played each year & it doesnt make sense to award ranking points for finals next year. Rather they could have scheduled the finals earlier than the ATP finals no?
    – KharoBangdo
    Commented Oct 31, 2014 at 4:40
  • I'm not able to find a source at the moment but I've been watching the men's game and follow the tournaments all year round for the past 20 years now. The year-end number one award and other awards like most improved, comeback player of the year, fan favorite, etc are all awarded right after the end of the world tour finals event. I just know that's how it's been for a long time now. Those Davis Cup points will get added to Federer's total the Monday following the DC tie, but that won't be in time to count towards the year-end number one ranking.
    – jamauss
    Commented Oct 31, 2014 at 8:09
  • If you read the section "Battle for No. 1" on this page you will notice they make no mention of the Switzerland/France Davis Cup tie, only the Paris Masters and World Tour Finals. m.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2014/10/44/…
    – jamauss
    Commented Oct 31, 2014 at 8:12
  • But Davis cup points were, very recently added to the ATP Ranking points. I guess we just have to wait for that particular scenario to arrive to find out then.
    – KharoBangdo
    Commented Oct 31, 2014 at 8:13
  • Also, I asked the question to @SteveTignor on twitter, but he hasn't replied to me yet. Any other renowned tennis writer or official or ex-players have mentioned this?
    – KharoBangdo
    Commented Oct 31, 2014 at 8:16
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As we can see in the ranking breakdown of Race to London, Djokovic still holds 150pts earned from DC final last year. I'm guessing that the Tour Finals mark the end of the season and DC cup final results are rewarded to the next season.

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  • In this discussion it is suggested that they are counted in the race (which ends before WTF) but not in the year-end rankings. I quote: So I am correct that the DC Final has the special disctinction of being the only event in which it is counted in the 2014 YE but also at the 2015 Race (because it happened after WTF 2014). (Of course, it is not an official source.)
    – Martin
    Commented Nov 2, 2014 at 17:53
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Yes. After the ATP World Tour Finals, Novak Djokovic's 150 points will be dropped and Davis Cup final points, which Roger Federer might win, will be added for Roger Federer. Race considers previous year's Davis Cup finals as well and not just the year end championship for the No.1 status. Some times ATP awards Player of the Year award which could be other than the one who holds no.1 ranking during the ATP Finals. It has happened once or twice in the past...km

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