On July 1, 2017, Japanese player Yuichi Sugita claimed a victory at the Antalya Open in Turkey. It was the first ATP title for the 28-year-old, who was ranked number 66 in the world at the time. It also marked his tenth year on the tour after turning a professional while still being a university student. His achievement demonstrated the possibility of traversing a different career path than a conventional one which is focused on nurturing elite players during their teen years. Hence, the purpose of this quantitative analysis is to further investigate the relations between a player's first ATP tour victory and his chosen career path.
Having compared the rankings of players according to the age at which each player won their first ATP tournament, the study found that players who claimed their first tour victory at 25 or above do not necessarily rank lower than players who won their first title between 21 and 24. In fact, in most cases, players in the former group even go on to enjoy longer professional lives than those belonging to the latter category. This is primarily due to the fact that the large number of ATP points earned through a tournament victory can propel a player to a much higher ranking, giving him a better place in later competitions as a result of the way the ATP tour is structured.