Jim Courier, a former No. 1, said a tennis player never forgets a first ranking point.
“That’s like getting your first car,” he added.
Though generally true, that rule turns out to have exceptions. Ask the eight players who have qualified for this week’s ATP World Tour Finals in London where their climb up the computer rankings began, and all but one — Tomas Berdych — can immediately cite the time and place.
“I had to look it up, because my memory was not really clear about it,” Berdych said. “But, yes, it was a Futures tournament in Czech Republic, where I beat a Czech player, Radovan Svetlik.