Rafael Nadal (36, Spain) is pushed out of the top 10 of the ATP (Men’s Professional Tennis) singles ranking, which he has kept for 18 years, which is half of his life.
Nadal gave up participating in the Mexican Open (Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC · ATP500), which is being held this week, and the ATP1000 series BNP Paribas Open, which opens on the 8th and lasts for two weeks.
Nadal won the championship and runner-up in each of the two competitions last year. Therefore, he loses 500 ranking points after the closing of the Mexican Open and 600 points after the closing of the BNP Paribas Open.
Nadal, currently ranked 8th in the world, will drop to 12th in the ATP rankings on the 20th. That means Nadal has been in the top 10 for a total of 17 years바카라, 10 months and 23 days, officially 912 consecutive weeks. He is a record 124 weeks longer than No. 2 Jimmy Connors and 738 weeks longer than No. 3 Roger Federer.
Nadal reached his first top 10 on April 25, 2005, at the age of 18 years, 10 months and 22 days. At the time, all the other nine players in the top 10 with him retired.
However, Nadal skipped last year’s Miami Open (ATP1000) due to injury, so he has no ranking points to defend until the Madrid Masters, held from April 24 to May 7.
After losing the second round of the Australian Open in January this year, when he competed as the defending champion, Nadal announced that he would miss the tour for six to eight weeks due to a rupture of the iliopsoas muscle. The BNP Paribas Open, which will be held in Indian Wells, will be held within six weeks of the minimum rehabilitation period Nadal said.
Nadal tweeted: “I am saddened to be unable to compete at the Indian Wells and Miami tournaments.”
Nadal is expected to return in time for the clay court season, which begins in mid-April. As a ‘soil god’, he aims to win his 15th championship at the French Open, which opens at the end of May (28th) by improving his condition in his favorite clay court competition. However, due to the lower ranking, it is inevitable that it will be a much more difficult challenge than before. Because he cannot receive a high seed, he is more likely to face difficult opponents from the beginning.
If he enters the French Open with 12th place, he may meet Novak Djokovic (World No. 1 Serbia) in the 4th round. Nadal has a record of 112 wins and 3 losses at the French Open, and two of his three losses (2015 and 2021) were to Djokovic.