“We all know who is the real World No.1” Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal’s fans fight as the Spaniard is set to become new World No.2

Twenty-one time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal has overtaken Norway’s Casper Ruud for the No.2 spot in the ATP live rankings after he lost to Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka in the quarterfinals at Seoul on Friday.

This means that for the first time in 2000, two men from the same country will be at the No.1 and No.2 place in the ATP rankings once published on Monday, that is, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Nadal. The last time this happened, it was Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras from USA at 1 or 2.

However, some tennis fans on Twitter weren’t impressed with all the hype over rankings, arguing that points weren’t the true reflection of performance this year with Wimbledon becoming an effective exhibition for the ATP and WTA after their decision to annul ranking points at SW19 over United Kingdom’s decision to ban Russian players from participating due to the war with Ukraine.

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Can Rafael Nadal still end the year as World No.1?

Nadal is currently less than 1000 points behind Alcaraz in the live rankings with the Paris Masters and ATP Finals both offering lucrative ranking points at stake.

If Nadal can win at the hard courts in Paris, he can really bridge the gap as he did not even play the tournament last year while Alcaraz reached the third round, and will be defending points.

Both Nadal and Alcaraz, however, did not compete in the ATP Finals marquee event last year, with Alcaraz not even qualified for the tournament, having only recently reached the Top 8, after which he monumentally climbed to World No.1 post winning the US Open.

Interestingly, 19-year-old Alcaraz also became the youngest World No.1 in the history of men’s tennis following his first major win at Flushing Meadows this year, overtaking former Australian player Lleyton Hewitt by a few months.

There are some that are already debating whether Alcaraz can go on to become the Greatest of All Time, even speculating that he could eclipse the 30 Grand Slam mark in the future, including his coach and former French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero.

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