A strange and unusual situation in the ATP. The first and second player in the world ranking this year without a title. No one is ruling with enough sovereignty. Others will get their chance.

Players with not very stable and long-term form are at the top of the ranking. In this respect, the incredible Rafael Nadal is perhaps the best. However, due to his age, he is increasingly plagued by various injuries and thus misses a lot of events. He misses out on a lot of points, otherwise he would be even higher, or even at the very top.

The current world number one, Russian Daniil Medvedev, will not put his last match behind him. In the final on grass in Hertogenbosch, the tournament threw the then 205th ranked player into the title match. It was Tim Van Rijthoven. It was expected to be a clear-cut contest, and so it was. Only the other way around.

The duel lasted just an hour and the highest ranked player in the world packed up and left the court after a 4::6 and 1::6 double. At the French Open he didn’t make it past the eighth round, in Geneva he didn’t. Before that, at the tournament in Miami, he finished on Hurkacz’s racket in the quarterfinals. He left Indian Wells after the 3rd round.

At the Australian Open and in Acapulco, he faced Rafael Nadal. 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 semi-finals in Mexico.

The runner-up is Alexander Zverev of Germany. He is in virtually the same position. He reached the final at Roland Garros, but he was up against Nadal, who of course claimed another local title. In Rome, he finished in the semi-finals and Tsitsipas went on at his expense. In Madrid, he was only stopped on home soil by the home comet, Carlos Alcazar, in the title match. These are all solid results, just missing the title.

But in Munich he dropped out in the 2nd round, in Indian Wells too, and in Acapulco he withdrew after the opening round. So even the world number two lacks stability and consistency. Especially now he will be out for a while. He tore ligaments in his ankle at the FO, he is currently out of surgery and will have a long recovery. So who will be in the running for world #1?

Only 19 year old Carlos Alcazar is moving up tremendously fast. Like perhaps all Spaniards, he is best on clay. And on the crushed bricks in Spain, he’s already won two titles this year. In Spain’s two biggest cities, Madrid and Barcelona. He has one more on clay in Rio de Janeiro and on hardwood in Miami.

Novak Djokovic, of course, hasn’t had the last word in the battle for the ATP throne. He needs to get there once more and hold on for at least 4 weeks. That would be to match the legendary Steffi Graf and her record. The latter has spent 377 weeks at the top of the rankings in her career, the Serb is currently at 373 weeks. This year he dominated the event in Rome, but that’s not enough. At least in proportion to how many points she’s losing.

He lost points at the French Open and it won’t be any different after the grass grand slams. It will be played, but no points will be awarded. The English organiser has banned Russian athletes from playing. This move seemed unfair to the ATP and WTA management and so they decided that no points would be awarded.

This will hurt Djokovic, who won the event last year and will lose the most. He will drop to at least 8th position. The tournament at the All England Club will be really special this year, but not in the right spirit. Several tennis players have mentioned that it will basically be an exhibition and are thus considering skipping it altogether.

There is also a big question mark hanging over Rafa Nadal. After his 14th title out of 14 finals matches at the FO, he said that he played with his leg almost completely numbed and that he couldn’t even walk at the hotel. That’s certainly not a sustainable condition. Aside from his knee, his gait is also bothering him. It was with his foot that he had treatment, during which three nerves in the arch of his foot were partially deadened using pulsed radiofrequency therapy.

According to the information available, he has slowly joined training and will probably make Wimbledon. Health is the biggest question for Nadal himself. He himself says that health comes first before all titles and that if things went on, he would not force it. He’s also counting on possible knee surgery, but given the kind of fighter he is, he’s also counting on coming back after that. If his health holds, he could definitely return to being world number one.

Given the upcoming strange scoreless Wimbledon, Medvedev’s instability, Zverev’s injury, and Djokovic’s aging, it will be interesting to see what happens next. The number one position is certainly not unshakeable at the moment and there are many aspirants for it.

Source: ATP, iSport