Rafael Nadal goes past Roger Federer, Pete Sampras and other greats in this elite list


Rafael Nadal goes past Roger Federer, Pete Sampras and other greats in this elite list

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal

Rafa’s latest achievement( Image source- ATP TENNIS TV)

Although what concluded or is concluding as a decent year for Rafael Nadal in terms of winning Grand Slams, the past several weeks have been nothing less than historic.

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Nadal won the Roland Garros for the 13th time, tied Roger Federer’s all-time record for most Grand Slam titles (20), and recorded his 1,000th career win after defeating Feliciano Lopez in the second round of the Paris Masters 2020.

As of now, he has added another remarkable record to his name as,

Rafael Nadal is currently spending his 790th consecutive week in the ATP Top 10, breaking Jimmy Connors’ record. Connors once managed to be in the top 10 for 789 weeks in a row.

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Perhaps, what’s more intriguing to this milestone is how many of those 790 weeks did Nadal spend in the upper range which is the Top 3.

Running the numbers, Rafa has spent 26% of the time at No. 1, 81% of the time in the Top 2 and 93% of the time in the Top 5. Since June 12, 2017, Nadal has been permanently listed at number 1 or 2 again.

Not possible for mates to catch up: Rafael Nadal’s new record

Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer

Talking about peers who keep switching in sharing the pedestal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic will probably never catch up with Rafael Nadal at this.

On October 7, 2002, The Swiss broke into the top 10 rankings for the first time. However, he fell to the 17th place in 2017 after his knee and back problems towards the end of the 2016 campaign.

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And Djokovic, who cracked it for the first time on March 19, 2007, slipped down to 22nd place in 2018, after his shoulder surgery in the 2017 campaign.

Also Read: Road to Nitto ATP Finals: Overview of Rafael Nadal’s 2020 season, Past Performance and Prediction for ATP Finals 2020