Zhang Zhizhen's 2025 world ranking continues to decline, along with six others on an unusual list

Some rejoice while others despair—this saying applies equally to men's tennis. In the 2025 season, seven players experienced consecutive drops in their rankings for various reasons, unfortunately becoming the biggest fallers. Notably, this group includes Chinese player Zhang Zhizhen. So, who exactly are these seven players? And what remarkable achievements have they had in the past? Today, this article will take you through their stories.

French player Pouille reached the Grand Slam semifinals in 2019. Although he faced setbacks afterward, in the 2024 season, he still won two Challenger titles and made it to the third round at Wimbledon. These results brought Pouille back into the top 100 in the world rankings. Unfortunately, after reaching a Challenger final in February 2025, he ended his season due to injury. This caused his year-end 2025 ranking to fall beyond 550, and whether he can return to the top 100 remains uncertain, even to himself.

Many fans are familiar with Finnish player Ruusuvuori. In 2017, during the US Open juniors semifinals, Wu Yibing came back from a set down to defeat Ruusuvuori and reach the final. However, Ruusuvuori soon avenged this loss by beating Wu in that year's junior year-end finals to claim the title. That same year, he also won his first career Futures title. In 2024, Ruusuvuori reached finals in both singles and doubles on the tour. However, his 2025 season was lackluster, with only two quarterfinal appearances in Challengers. Now, the former Finnish number one has dropped to world ranking 545.

Compared to Pouille and Ruusuvuori, German player Koppfeil is less well-known. Still, he has won five Challenger titles and once reached the quarterfinals of a Masters event, breaking into the top 50 in the world, showing solid ability. In the 2025 season, after reaching the quarterfinals of the Tenerife Challenger in February, Koppfeil missed the entire season due to injury. Currently, his world ranking has fallen beyond 500.

For a long time, Australian player Kokkinakis has mainly competed in doubles. In the 2022 season, he won his first tour-level title with five consecutive wins at the ATP 250 Adelaide event. Later, Kokkinakis also won the men's doubles title at the Australian Open. In 2025, after an early exit at the Australian Open, he left the tennis court due to injury. This situation caused Kokkinakis's world ranking to drop to 450.

In the 2024 season, Russian player Kotov reached the Grand Slam third round for the first time in his career. That year, his world ranking entered the top 50 for the first time. After the peak came the decline: in 2025, although Kotov did not miss any tournaments due to injury, he failed to win any main draw matches on the tour and suffered a ten-match losing streak. As a result, by year-end, Kotov's world ranking fell to 480.

Zhang Zhizhen is the first Chinese male tennis player to break into the top 100 and the first to win a match at the French Open. Moreover, he holds the record for the most wins among Chinese male players on both the tour and Grand Slam stages. Unfortunately, due to injury, Zhang played very few matches in the 2025 season. Currently, his world ranking has dropped to 464.

Japanese player Taro Daniel famously defeated Serbian star Djokovic in the 2022 season. In 2024, he won a Challenger title and reached a tour final. That year, Daniel's ranking peaked at 58. However, in 2025, he only reached one quarterfinal at the ATP 250 Chengdu event and was often eliminated early in Challengers, showing none of his former form. This decline caused his ranking to fall to 370.

All seven players have had notable achievements on the ATP tour. So, in the new year, which of these seven do you think will rebound and significantly improve their ranking? That’s the tennis story for today—stay tuned for more tomorrow.(Source: Tennis Home, Author: Yixin Jushi)