Will former World No.1 Rafael Nadal drop out of the top-10 in the ATP men’s rankings?
Follow Us
Rafael Nadal
20-time-Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal stunned the tennis fraternity a few days ago by calling time on his 2021 season. The Spaniard who injured his foot at the end of this year’s French Open returned to action at the Citi Open in Washington, a few weeks ago.
Unfortunately, Nadal was shocked in the second round by South African Lloyd Harris. Later, Nadal was forced to skip the Toronto and the ongoing Cincinnati Masters and returned back home to consult with his doctor.
Sadly, the extent of the injury not only saw Nadal pulling out of the upcoming US Open, but it also put a premature end to the concluding part of the season. While there are a few marquee events left for the year, let us analyze if the former World No.1 can drop out of the top-10 in men’s ATP rankings, since April 2005.
The Spaniard first entered the top 10 rankings at the age of 18, a few months before he won his maiden French Open title. Not too long ago, 35-year-old cracked 800 consecutive weeks in the top 10. In fact, such has been Nadal’s dominance and consistency that he has been in the top-10 for more than 15 years, and has never lived outside of the top-10.
Now, the 13-time Roland Garros winner is on the cusp of dropping out of the top five in the men’s ranking, since 2015. Consider this: Nadal won the 2019 US Open and thereby will surrender 2000 points as per the ATP rankings rules (tweaked due to Covid-19), when the latest update is released on August 30.
Nadal to slip 3-4 places
The King of Clay might be ranked No.4 currently, but is guaranteed to slip to eight-nine on the ATP rankings with 5815 points, at the start of September, 2021. Going by the current position, Nadal will be surpassed by Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev and Dominic Thiem soon. Interestingly, the Spaniard will be just over the Swiss maestro, Roger Federer.
Fortunately for Nadal, he isn’t defending many points at the upcoming mega events – Indian Wells (rescheduled), Paris Masters and ATP World Tour Finals. Considering Nadal’s results at the aforementioned tournaments in 2019, the former top-ranked Nadal is certain to only drop less than 900 points, which will further reduce his points to almost 5000.
Despite the fall, he maintain a healthy lead over the rest of the pack. Unless, the likes of Jannik Sinner, Denis Shapovalov or Pablo Carreno Busta get on a winning juggernaut over the next few months, it is almost improbable to see Nadal sliding out of the top-10, when the season comes to a close in November.
But perhaps, Nadal’s biggest comfort lies in the fact that he is better placed than Federer, who is more likely to first exit the top-10 of men’s ranking by the end of the year. When it is all said and done, expect Nadal to resume as the World No.9 or 10 in 2022.
Stay Updated!
Vivek Krishnan
(767 Articles Published)