Rafael Nadal set to stay No. 1 ahead of Roger Federer
Roger Federer has for the second time in his career been relieved of the world No. 1 ranking by Rafael Nadal, and it’s hard to see the Swiss returning to the top of the tree any time soon.
Before the French Open, the 16-time Grand Slam champion was on the cusp of breaking yet another one of Pete Sampras’ records – this time the 286 weeks the American had spent as the world’s top-ranked player – but is now left stranded just a week short of equalling Sampras’ mark.
It took the almost unthinkable for it to happen too – and that was defending champion Federer being knocked out prior to the semi-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time since Roland Garros in 2004, while Nadal coolly collected his fifth title at the tournament and with it the No. 1 ranking.
Nadal was adamant that regaining the Roland Garros crown was the more important achievement of the two, telling reporters that: “When I was crying after the match, the last thing I was thinking was of the No. 1. The first thing is the title.”
But his return to the top spot does, at least from the outside, reignite another element of the rivalry between the pair.
The Spaniard now has a slender buffer of 310 ranking points between himself and Federer, but in view of the points Federer has to defend during the summer the margin suddenly becomes much greater.
While Nadal was sidelined from Wimbledon with knee tendinitis last year, Federer was busy winning his sixth crown at the All England Club, so will return to the grass court major with 2,000 ranking points to defend. Nadal has none.
It’s an equation that means the Majorcan is assured of putting more distance between himself and the Fed Express whatever result he records at Wimbledon, and in his current form it’s hard to see Nadal making an early exit from the tournament.
And that’s without taking into account the points the 24-year-old will surely add to his tally at the Aegon Championships at Queen’s Club this week, where he returns for the first time since winning the title in 2008.
After Wimbledon last year, neither player was sighted on the ATP Tour until the Montreal Masters 1000 in early August, where Nadal marked his return from injury with a quarter-final berth, an achievement that was matched by new dad Federer.
The 29-year-old followed that with the Cincinnati Masters 1000 title and a runner-up performance at the US Open while Nadal was a semi-finalist at both tournaments. Based on those results, neither can afford an early exit if the year-end No. 1 ranking is among their goals for 2010, but Federer has further to fall over the coming months.
Whether Nadal can keep Federer at arm’s length, and just out of reach of Sampras’ record, for the remainder of the season remains to be seen, but with both recording some mixed results last autumn (Federer reaching the final of his home tournament in Basel before crashing out in his opening match in Paris; Nadal reaching the final in Shanghai - while Federer missed the Asian swing entirely - but failing to win a match in the round robin stage of the World Tour finals), there’s plenty of room for movement at the top of the ranking table.
While titles will count for everything for this pair, especially at Wimbledon and the US Open, as the year draws to a close the battle to be the season ending No. 1 looks set to become ever more intriguing.
This one might just go down to the wire.
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