The 22-time grand slam champion has suffered a number of injuries throughout his career, but has always held a high position in the ATP rankings due to his great performance in the tournaments he has played in. Unfortunately, the current injury puts Rafa Nadal on the brink of dropping out of the top 10 for the first time since 2005. What can protect him from this?
Rafa Nadal has been in the TOP 10 for 18 years!
Rafael Nadal has been in the top 10 for 18 years. The Spaniard was in the top 10 for almost 900 weeks until 2015, when he briefly dropped to 10th place. However, he quickly regained his place. What’s more, the Spaniard is usually in the top five.
On April 18, 2005, Rafael Nadal, who was 18 at the time, took 11th place in the ATP rankings. A week later, after winning the title in Barcelona, he moved up to 7th position. Since then, the Spaniard, who is now 36, has never dropped out of the top 10 in the rankings. Unfortunately, his winning streak may end this year due to a hip injury that will keep him out of the court until March/April.
A hip injury can cost the Spaniard a lot, not only in terms of health
Unfortunately, with a hip injury, Nadal can lose a lot of points. Due to the injury, he will probably miss the Qatar Open in Doha and will lose points for winning in Acapulco last year. He might not even play the ATP 1000 tournament in Indian Wells, which would be a huge problem.
In the latest ATP rankings, the Spaniard is sixth. If he doesn’t recover sooner than expected, he will lose the points he earned for the win in Acapulco over the next four weeks. This would mean Nadal would only have 3,315 points and would drop to at least seventh as Taylor Fritz, who is now eighth, will have at least 3,320 points. If Felix Auger-Aliassime does nothing, he’ll be at 3,130 and Holger Rune’s score should be 3,026. Unfortunately, both of these players are likely to play tournaments where they’ll likely score 200 or 300, which is enough to surpass Nadal in ranking.
So the Spaniard has to play in Indian Wells because he has to defend 600 points there. If he doesn’t, he’ll likely drop out of the top 10 for the first time since 2005.
We keep our fingers crossed for Nadal’s speedy recovery!