Tennis ace Rafael Nadal on Monday returned to top spot in ATP rankings in men’s professional tennis replacing Roger Federer. The Spaniard will now begin his 168th week as world No. 1.
Nadal lost his top spot to his long-term rival Roger Federer when the latter defeated his Dutch opponent Robin Haase at Rotterdam Open to become the oldest world No. 1 on 18th February. Federer, however, slipped 10 points behind his Spanish rival and into second place after a second round defeat to America’s John Isner in the Miami Masters 1000 event.
The 31 year old Spanish star has spent four previous stints at No. 1 – 46 weeks between August 18, 2008 and July 5, 2009, 56 weeks from June 7, 2010 to July 3, 2011, 39 weeks between October 7, 2013 and July 6, 2014 and 26 weeks from August 21, 2017 to February 18, 2018. Only Federer (309), Pete Sampras (286), Ivan Lendl (270), Jimmy Connors (268), Novak Djokovic (223) and John McEnroe (170) have spent more weeks than Nadal at No. 1 since August 1973.
India’s Yuki Bhambri climbed up two spots to 105, after his second round appearance in recently concluded Miami Masters event. Following him is Ramkumar Ramanathan, who climbed four spot to 132 in the rankings.
Change of rankings on 2nd April.
1. Rafael Nadal (ESP) 8.770 pts (+1)
2. Roger Federer (SUI) 8.670 (-1)
3. Marin Cilic (CRO) 4.985
4. Alexander Zverev (GER) 4.925 (+1)
5. Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) 4.635 (-1)
6. Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG) 4.470
7. Dominic Thiem (AUT) 3.665
8. Kevin Anderson (RSA) 3.390
9. John Isner (USA) 3.125 (+8)
10. David Goffin (BEL) 3.110 (-1)
