Novak Djokovic is the current World No. 1 and will hold the top spot for twice as long as Rafael Nadal at the beginning of April.
It won’t be possible to unseat the Serb, who has 9,855 points at this time, until April 1. Following Carlos Alcaraz’s regrettable elimination from the Rio Open, the development was verified.
When the table is updated on Monday, February 26, Alcaraz, who injured his right ankle rolling against Thiago Monteiro in Rio de Janeiro, would drop 300 ranking points, to 8,805. Because of this, there is no way in which he or any other player in the rankings could defeat Novak Djokovic before April.
The Serb will therefore have ranked first in the world for a total of 418 weeks, which is precisely twice as many as Nadal’s 209 weeks.
2011 saw Djokovic take the World No. 1 spot for the first time after winning the Wimbledon Championship in July of that same year. After defeating Jo Wilfried Tsonga in the semifinal, he had already secured his ascent to the top. However, he did not stop there; he went on to upset Nadal in the summit match to win the first of his seven titles at the All England Club.
At the US Open last year, he started his current run at the top of the rankings. After winning his first-round match, he had assured himself a spot back at the top of the world rankings, but he didn’t stop there either. After overcoming Daniil Medvedev in the championship match, he went on to win the title, his third Slam of the year and his 24th overall.
In contrast, Nadal achieved the top spot in the world rankings in 2008. For the Spaniard, the year was particularly memorable because he had won both the Olympic gold medal and his first Wimbledon championship.
