Roger Federer and Marin Cilic are into the Wimbledon 2017 final. For Federer it is his first appearance in the final at the All England Club in two years, but he has not won the event since 2012. For Cilic, the Wimbledon 2017 final is his first appearance ever in the match. He has been a steady quarterfinalist over the years, but this year he managed to get over the hump. While The World No. 1 ranking will stay with Andy Murray for the time being, the Wimbledon final will still have an effect on the top five immediately. Over time, the match may prove to be a factor for top spot.
World No. 5 on the line
Heading into the final, when on uses live-tennis rankings, Federer is the 5th-best player in the world while Cilic is 6th best. Live-tennis rankings involve updating the rankings round-by-round in an active tournament, instead of refreshing the rankings after the conclusion of the tournament. Cilic would become the World No. 5 on Monday if he is able to defeat Federer in the final. That would be a career-high ranking for the Croat and the ranking points would definitely be helpful at this point in his career.
Not far in the future, Cilic has a big title to defend at the Cincinnati Masters. That puts 1000 ranking points on the line for him at that upcoming event, so winning the Wimbledon final would provide some insurance for him should he do poorly in Cincinnati this summer.
The runnerup at Wimbledon will get 1200 ranking points while the champion will get 2000 ranking points. The points stay with players for 52 weeks and the extra 800 points makes a big difference. It represents more than three titles at the 250 level on the ATP.
Federer chasing Nadal on year-to-date rankings
For Federer, his proximity to the World No.
1 ranking is getting closer. He's still some 2000 points behind Andy Murray, but when one looks at year-to-date rankings, Murray is nowhere on the radar. It's basically Federer versus Rafael Nadal for the top ranking at this point. Dominic Thiem is actually the third-best player to this point in the season. However, Thiem is not a great hard courter and that's what's mainly left for the balance of the year.
Federer is the player with the better hard-court abilities and, after Wimbledon, that's the surface that all the big-points tournaments will be played on. A lot is certainly riding on the Wimbledon result. Cilic can't be sure that he'll have a chance like this again. Federer can't either based on his age. Meanwhile Cilic is looking to get to new heights in regard to his ranking, while Federer is trying to track down top spot this summer.