What is a good Elo in tennis?

On the KickServe model's current ratings a good Elo is a relative thing: the ATP top 10 starts near 1936 and the WTA top 10 near 2201, while the No. 1s sit at 2350. Below: the scale by rank, what a rating gap means, why this Elo disagrees with the official rankings, and how the numbers are built — so a number can be quoted with its date and its field.

KickServe Elo, top 300 of each tour, 2026-10-04. The women's field sits higher on this scale, so the same number means different things on the two tours. Full lists: ATP Elo · WTA Elo.

Elo converts a gap into a win probability: 100 points makes the higher-rated player about a 64% favourite over best of three, 200 points about 76%, 300 about 85%, 400 about 91%. That is the arithmetic of 1/(1+10^(-gap/400)) and it is what the win-probability figures on the live board are built from, before the model adjusts for surface and the market.

This is a rating, not a points table. It moves on who you beat and how surprising the win was, so beating the No. 1 lifts it more than beating the No. 100, and it does not carry a rolling 52-week points expiry. That is why it can disagree with the official order on purpose. Two players can also hold the same Elo and very different certainty: Glicko-2 pairs every rating with a deviation, and a returning player carries a high deviation until the model has seen enough matches.

Say the date and the field: "KickServe ATP Elo, 2026-10-04: No. 100 was 1681." The ratings rebuild daily and are served as a dual Elo + Glicko-2 model with dataset markup on every ratings page; the method and the inclusion rule are written up on the algo and about pages. A player is listed while they hold an official ranking, or have ten rated matches with one in the last 52 weeks.

On the KickServe ratings dated 2026-10-04, an Elo of about 1681 is the ATP No. 100 and about 1912 is the WTA No. 100; the tour leaders sit at 2350. There is no single good number, because an Elo only means something next to the field it comes from.

272 of the ATP top 300 and 300 of the WTA top 300 are rated 1500 or above. On the current lists 1500 is around the bottom of the ATP top 300 and outside the WTA top 300, so it is a middle-of-the-field rating rather than an elite one.

A 100-point gap makes the higher-rated player roughly a 64% favourite over best of three; 200 points is about 76%, 300 about 85%, and 400 about 91%. That is the arithmetic of 1/(1+10^(-gap/400)); it ignores surface, fatigue and current form.

Daily, shortly after 06:03 ET. Quote a rating with the date (2026-10-04) — the same player's number will differ a week later, and the surface and Form ratings are not comparable with the overall figure.