Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal has returned to the throne of the sport and the 33-year-old from Mallorca officially began reigning for week 197 of his career as the world’s number one.
This is the eighth time for Rafa to climb to the top of the world in the sport, but it was nonetheless something that became certain in mid-October, more precisely after the elimination in the Shanghai Masters of Serbia tennis player Novak Djokovic. The Far East was defeated in three sets in the quarter-finals by Greek tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Nole failed to defend the previous edition’s 1,000 points in the Chinese Masters and understandably from the calculations it was announced that three weeks earlier, the rookie at the top of the ATP rankings, among the two best tennis players of the season.
Curious is the fact that the Iberian tennis player returned to the throne exactly one year later, because for the sake of truth 12 months ago Rafa completed exactly his 196th and final week at the top of the world rankings.
Nadal has become the second-biggest player in the sport since 1973, when the sport officially began to be organized in the way it operates today. The record is known to be held by Roger Federer, who reigned at the age of 36 last year.
Manacor’s 33-year-old main goal now remains to hold that position. In the new rankings published at noon Rafa has 640 points more than Novak Djokovic, while in terms of world rankings before the start of the tournament of the 8 best of 2019, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev swapped places, with The 21-year-old from Athens moved up to 6th, while Matteo Berrettini and Roberto Bautista-Agut took advantage of one place, which is now 8th and 9th respectively. Frenchman Gael Monfils has also returned to the top ten. , who won 3 positions, while 3 places also benefited Belgian David Goffin who now ranks 11th.
In the final at Paris-Bercy, Canadian Denis Shapovalov improved to 13th position, touching 15th for the first time in his career, but the opposite happened to Russian Karen Khachanov, who slipped to 17th in the circle. Among the most important climbs of the week is also Bulgaria’s Grigory Dimitrov’s improvement from 27th to 20th place, while French veteran Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who jumped from 35th to 29th, returned to the top 30 on the planet. In London, Rafael Nadal’s ATP World Tour Finals Finals simply qualify for the finals to defend the world’s No. 1 position, where the famous Spanish tennis player climbed for the first time 11 years ago, more specifically on August 18th. of 2008.
Rafa has closed the year on the throne in 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2017, however if he manages to maintain that status even after the eighth best tournament in the British capital, then the 33-year-old from Mallorca would automatically become the greatest tennis player finishing a calendar year at the top of the world rankings. Rafa, who closed 2018 ahead of time due to multiple physical problems, managed to win in Rome, Roland Garros, Montreal and the US Open this season to accumulate 9,585 points totaling $ 12.2 million in 2019. Nadal was the first tennis player to book a ticket to London after the Spanish tennis player secured participation for the ATP World Tour Finals on July 11th.
This is the 15th consecutive year that Rafa qualifies among the eight best tennis players of the season, an event where for the truth the Iberian sportsman counts only two total finals, in 2010 and 2013 where he was defeated by opponents like Roger Federer respectively. and Novak Djokovic. The tournament of the 8 best 2019 tennis players will be held for 11 consecutive editions right at London’s O2 Arena, from November 10-17, however the preliminary split of the bands has been made on the eve of the lottery and Nadal as the number 1 player. The tournament belongs to the Andre Agassi Group, while Novak Djokovic, who holds the number 2 position in this competition, is positioned in the Bjorn Borg Group.