At the forefront of the ranking are players with not very stable and long-term form. In this respect, perhaps the most incredible is Rafael Nadal. However, due to his age, he suffers more and more from various injuries and thus misses a lot of companies. He lacks so many points, otherwise he would be even higher, or even the highest.
The current world number one, Russian Daniil Medvedev, will definitely not get the last match behind the frame. In the final on the grass in Hertogenbosch, the tournament for him won the title match at that time. He was Tim Van Rijthoven. A clear battle was expected and so it happened. But on the opposite side.
The duel lasted only an hour and the highest player in the world packed off the court after a 4: 6 and 1: 6 debacle. He did not go through the round of 16 at the French Open, just like in Geneva. Before that, at the tournament in Miami, he finished on the Hurkacz racket in the quarterfinals. He left Indian Wells after the 3rd round.
Rafael Nadal stood in his way at the Australian Open and Acapulco. In Melbourne we saw a famous battle that lasted almost 5 and a half hours and the Spaniard came out victorious. Less than a month later, Nadal won again, this time in the semifinals in Mexico.
Second in order is Alexander Zverev from Germany. He is practically the same. He reached Roland Garros until the final, but Nadal faced him and he, of course, won another local title. He finished in the semifinals in Rome and Tsitsipas continued at his expense. In Madrid, he was stopped at home by the home comet, Carlos Alcazar, in the title duel. These are all solid results, just missing the title.
But in Munich he dropped out in the 2nd round, in Indian Wells also and in Acapulco he resigned after the opening round. And so the world number two lacks the stability and balance of performance. Above all, he will be out for a while now. He tore ligaments in his ankle at the FO, he is currently after surgery and will spend a long time recovering. So who will run for the post of world 1.?
Carlos Alcazar, only 19 years old, is going up so fast. Like perhaps all Spaniards, he handles clay best. And it was on crushed bricks in Spain that he won 2 titles this year. In the two largest Spanish cities, Madrid and Barcelona. He has another clay court from Rio de Janeiro and reigned supreme in Miami.
Of course, Novak Djokovic has not yet said the last word in the fight for the ATP throne. He would need to get there again and stay at least 4 weeks. This would call the legendary Steffi Graf and her record. She has spent 377 weeks at the top of her career, the Serb is currently at 373 weeks. He took over the company in Rome this year, but that’s not enough. At least in proportion to how many points he loses.
He lost points at the French Open and otherwise it will not be even after the grass grand slam. It will take place, but no points will be awarded. The English organizer banned Russian athletes from playing. The move seemed unfair to the ATP and WTA leaders, so they decided not to award points.
It hurts Djokovic the most, who won the company last year and will lose the most. He will fall at least to the 8th position. The tournament in the All England club complex will be really exceptional this year, but not in the right spirit. Several tennis players have mentioned that it will basically be an exhibition and are considering omitting it altogether.
A large question mark also hangs over Rafa Nadal. After his 14th title from 14 final matches at the FO, he said that he played with almost completely numb leg and that he could not even walk at the hotel. This is certainly not a long-term sustainable state. In addition to his knees bothers him, he also walked. It was with his foot that he underwent treatment, during which three nerves in the arch of his leg were partially numbed by pulsed radiofrequency therapy.
According to the available information, he has already slowly joined the training and will probably catch up with Wimbledon. Health is the biggest question for Nadal himself. He himself says that health is in first place before all titles and that if it did not go on, it would not force it. He also counts on a possible knee operation, but given what a fighter he is, he also returns after it. If his health held, he could certainly return to the post of world number one.
Due to the upcoming special pointless Wimbledon, Medvedev instability, Zverev’s injuries and Djokovic’s aging, it will be interesting to follow the following events. Post number one is definitely not steadfast at the moment and there are many aspirants for it.
Source: ATP, Sport
