For the eighth different time in his career, and for the first time in exactly a year, Rafael Nadal is the top-ranked player in the world.
In overtaking Novak Djokovic for the top spot, 2019 US Open champion Nadal also moves back to No. 1 almost 12 months to the day that he announced he would need surgery on his right ankle.
Last week, Nadal reached the semifinals of the Rolex Paris Masters, winning his first three matches in straight sets before withdrawing ahead of his semifinal against Denis Shapovalov with an abdominal injury.
Even though Djokovic defeated Shapovalov for the title, the Serbian was defending finalist points from the same tournament in 2018, whereas Nadal did not play between the US Open in September 2018 and the Australian Open in January 2019.
Nadal first ascended to world No. 1 on Aug. 18, 2008, a position he held for 46 weeks until Roger Federer began his second stint at the top spot. Nadal regained the lead after winning the 2010 French Open, spending another 56 weeks at No. 1 prior to Djokovic earning the highest spot for the first time in his career the following summer.
The Spaniard spent 39 weeks back at No. 1 through the fall of 2013 after winning the US Open, and he spent an additional six months at the top of the ladder from August 2017 to February 2018.
Nadal and Federer alternated as world no. 1 for much of the first half of the 2018 season before Nadal took a stranglehold on the ranking on the heels of his 11th French Open title. Djokovic became No.1 for the fourth time in his career on Nov. 5, 2019—the day Nadal announced he would need surgery to remove loose objects in his foot—but the Spaniard moved back to the pinnacle once again in the latest ATP Rankings that were published today.
Nadal has now spent 197 weeks at No. 1 in the world, placing him sixth on the all-time list behind Federer (310 weeks), Pete Sampras (286 weeks), Djokovic (275 weeks), Ivan Lendl (270 weeks) and Jimmy Connors (268 weeks).
According to a release issued by the ATP Tour, should Nadal finish ahead of Djokovic to claim his fifth year-end No. 1 ranking at 33 years and six months old, he would be the oldest player to achieve the feat.
