There may be some confusion over Rafa Nadal’s eighth victory at Roland Garros on the weekend, as he slipped down the world rankings, to be leap frogged by David Ferrer, the man he beat in the final.
But it is all down to the fact that Nadal only defended ranking points he already held, because he was the defending champion and didn’t (and couldn’t) improve upon last year’s run. Ferrer meanwhile improved from his semi final appearance in 2012 and so got points. So Nadal now finds himself down in fifth, with Ferrer up in fourth.
What does that mean? With the Wimbledon Championships right around the corner, it is Ferrer who will take the fourth seeding, leaving Nadal a slightly tougher draw having to go in a quarter with one of the four top seeds. Still, online bookmaker Skybet launched odds of 16/1 for Rafa Nadal to be the season-ending number one when the Spaniard missed the Australian Open, but now they have cut the chances of that happening all the way down to 1/2.
It has been some turnaround from Nadal, who has picked up over 2,000 more world ranking points this season than any other player.
Nadal has already racked up seven titles from his nine tournaments back since a seven month layoff because of injury. It was at Wimbledon last year that Nadal picked up an injury that would keep him out of action until early February this year. The other two tournaments he has played this year has still seem him get to the finals. So there is no questioning his form but will he back on top of the world come the end of the year?
Ironically, what could help him is the fact that he bombed out of Wimbledon in the second round last year against Lukas Rosol. It means that he is only defending 90 points there and a victory, or even a run to the final would see him win big. He is most certainly set to improve upon last season’s Wimbledon performance, and with him missing the 2012 US Open because of injury, he only stands to gain there as well.
Novak Djokovic, the current world number one, is really the only other contender for a number one finish. The Serbian lost in the semi finals against Nadal, in a tremendous match between the two. Djokovic though will only defend big points at Wimbledon and the US Open. Andy Murray’s chances of finishing the year as world number one looks slim after missing the French Open and not producing anything of note on clay. Roger Federer hasn’t won a title this year and is already down in seventh in the Race to London for the ATP Barclays World Tour Finals.
Rafael Nadal is officially the greatest ever clay court player. Online bookmaker Skybet have him priced at 11/2 to win the next three French Open titles as well as he tries to close on Roger Federer’s record of 17 majors.
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