list of lowest-ranked players to win an ATP-tour-level tournament
(colour indicates the surface/conditions;
highest career ranking,
age at the time & total number of
titles are also shown; last thing is the way they made it into the draw)
- #550 lleyton hewitt AUS (#1), 16, adelaide 1998 (1st/30, almost defended his title the following year) WC
- #453 yahiya doumbia SEN (#74), 24, lyon 1988 (1st/2, twice in the list !) Q
- #397 kelly jones USA (#86), 25, singapore 1989 (1st/2, only one in the list, with krickstein, to defend his title) Q
- #390 danny saltz USA (#122), 22, auckland 1984 (1st/1) Q
- #??? aaron krickstein USA (#6), 16, tel aviv 1983 (1st/9, see bottom note) WC?
- #364 roberto arguello ARG (#49), 20, venice 1983 (1st/1) Q
- #355 pablo andujar ESP (#32), 32, marrakech 2018 (4th/4) PR
- #352 fernando gonzalez CHI (#5), 19, orlando 2000 (1st/11) Q
- #349 tommy haas GER (#2), 26, houston 2004 (6th/15) PR
- #316 santiago ventura ESP (#65), 24, casablanca 2004 (1st/1) Q
- #297 steve darcis BEL (#44), 23, amersfoort 2007 (1st/2) Q
- #282 yahiya doumbia SEN (#74), 32, bordeaux 1995 (2nd/2, twice in the list !) Q
- #272 robert van't hof USA (#25), 30, auckland 1984 (2nd/2) Q
- #258 nicolas lapentti ECU (#6), 19, bogota 1995 (1st/5, same week as doumbia !) Q
- #244 kei nishikori JAP (#4), 18, delray beach 2008 (1st/12) Q
- #243 pat cash AUS (#4), 24, hong kong 1990 (7th/7, played & lost the final in seoul the previous week, while ranked #590... against the same final opponent: antonitsch) WC
- #243 andy murray UK (#1), 32, antwerp 2019 (46th/46) PR
- #240 nicolas mahut FRA (#37), 31, 's-hertogenbosch 2013 (1st/4) Q
- #218 leonardo lavalle MEX (#51), 24, tel aviv 1991 (1st/1) Q
- #217? heinz gunthardt SWI (#22), 19, springfield 1978 (1st/5, first time a LL won a tournament) LL
- #217 sergio casal ESP (#31), 22, florence 1985 (1st/1) Q
- #214 mark philippoussis AUS (#8!), 29, newport 2006 (11th/11, and he played his 1st final at at scottstdale 1995, being ranked #272) WC
- #212 mark edmondson AUS (#15), 21, AO 1976 (1st/6) DA
- #212 mardy fish USA (#7), 24, houston 2006 (2nd/6) WC
- #210 carsten arriens GER (#109), 23, guaruja 1992 (1st/1) Q
- #210 jo-wilfried tsonga FRA (#5), 33, montpellier 2019 (17th/17) PR
- #209 sergiy stakhovsky UKR (#31), 22, zagreb 2008 (1st/4) LL
- #204 jose francisco altur ESP (#88!), 23, san marino 1989 (1st/1) Q
(active players in bold)
finalists whose ranking was worse than hewitt's:
#866 sluiter
#590 cash
feel free to help me to
correct me or/and
complete the list, it's a team effort.

- here i only included players ranked #200 and further
- remember that ATP rankings started in 1973
as regards krickstein, i had read many times that he wasn't ranked at the time, which surprised me as he reached the 4th round of the US open a few weeks before his maiden title. does anybody have more information about that ?
for tennisabstract.com, he wasn't ranked:
http://www.tennisabstract.com/cgi-bin/player.cgi?p=AaronKrickstein&f=ACareerqq
(but it seems that when rankings are missing for a particular week, they display the last ranking available in their database, so it's not 100% reliable !)
special mention for yahiya doumbia: only won 24 ATP-level career matches, but won 2 tournaments... each time as a qualifier !
(an achievement matched by nicolas mahut... with his 2 's-hertogenbosch titles won as a qualifier: 2013 and 2015)
doumbia, lapentti, ventura and altur won the first ATP-level tournament they played.